Every year, my student organization hosts a Mother and Daughter Day. A day where the 6th grade girls of nearby middle schools spend a Saturday at our college doing fun activities that get them thinking about their future.
This year, the local middle school wouldn’t be able to pull together the funds for breakfast and lunch. Although, as officers, we badly wanted to be able to provide meals for this event, we couldn’t. If our bank account was chest we hid under a floorboard, it would open to some loose change and couple of dead flies. We were broke!
It was too late to start fundraising, so it started to look like we’d be asking these 6th graders and their mom’s to pack their own lunches. But this was supposed to become a memorable and fun day for these girls and their mothers… I couldn’t bring myself to dilute to effects of this day by it being any less than spectacular. I decided to write a letter to a nearby well-known restaurant for any contributions they could provide for our event, but I disliked that it sounded like we were asking for handouts.
That’s when I remembered a very important principle I had learned earlier from Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends & Influence Others:
“Arouse in the other person an eager want.”
– Dale Carnegie
Okay, so how does this pertain to writing a fundraising letter? Most of the time, we’re so busy telling people what we want. (And if you’re anything like me, you want a lot of things) But do other people care about what you want? No, other people are worried about their own matters… they’re worried about their business making a profit, their worried about paying their bills, their worried about making it to their next dental appointment, so what we desire doesn’t even make it anywhere near their list of priorities.
So I could send this restaurant a letter asking them for a donation and throw on a ”pretty please” at the end, but that probably wouldn’t have got the desired result. Instead, I followed Dale Carnegie’s principle and thought from the point of view of the restaurant owner.
If I was the restaurant manager, what would I like to get out of this arrangement. Some things may include:
- The feeling of helping my community
- Recognition that my business is interested in the community’s well-being
- Customer loyalty
- Free advertisements
So now that I’ve thought through how to meet the desires of the restaurant manager, I was prepared to craft my letter:
Dear Sir/Ma’am,
My name is Haley Sparger and I’m the Student Mentor of Women in Business at Texas Tech University. Women in Business (WIB) is a student-led organization that furthers students’ knowledge of business culture, encourages entrepreneurship, and promotes leadership. We have a large diversity of members from a variety of majors that all bring something new to our organization.
Ever since the start of WIB, our officers have been loyal customers with (restaurant name). We know that when we order from your establishment we will get amazing customer service and food that our members will love. On Saturday, April, 29th we are conducting a Mother & Daughter Day in the Rawls College of Business and would like your restaurant to become an official sponsor of this event.
Mother-Daughter Day is hosted by WIB every Spring semester. Twenty-five 6th-grade girls from three different middle schools are invited to spend the day with the WIB members. We schedule a variety of fun activities that get the girls thinking about college. Some of the activities include creating goal & inspiration boxes, conducting a product design competition, showing the mothers how to find affordable business attire, and having an interactive discussion on all the different business majors. We hope to have a positive influence on the girls before they reach high school and get their families planning for their futures. Especially since most of these girls would be the first in their family to go to college if they decide to attend.
To make this a special day, we need your help! As a sponsor, we will recognize (restaurant name) as an advocate for WIB’s Mother-Daughter Day and promote your store on all our social media sites. We will also add you as an official sponsor on our WIB website.
Thank you,
Haley Sparger
In my letter, I addressed the manager’s desire for continued customer loyalty with a review of good past experiences using their food services for our member meetings. Then I created a summary of the importance of this event on the lives of middle schoolers in the area, driving the urge to want to help others. Lastly, I offered advertising strategies my organization would employ to get the recognition the restaurant deserved!
With this letter, I was able to obtain a 50% discount on hundreds of dollars of food services for the event. A reasonable offer that we could work with!
Instantly, my fear of writing fundraising letters disappeared. I furthered used this method to procure resources for workshops and prizes and scholarships for our most active members. If I found this method earlier, it would have helped with many other endeavors I wanted our organization to succeed in.
What do you think?
How does Dale Carnegie’s principle affect your outlook towards writing fundraising letters? Have you tried this method and did it work? Give us your feedback in the comments below!
Summary
- The author used Dale Carnegie’s principle of addressing the other person’s needs first in order to receive donations for her student organization.
- Remember to think from the person’s point of view that you’re asking to donate
- Address their needs/wants in the letter
- Be considerate (even if you don’t get the donation)
- Show appreciation before and after donation
The SOS Guide to Student Officer Term Lengths
