Novel Fundraising Letters.

Learn how to use creative writing techniques to make your appeal letters more dramatic, interesting—and profitable.

Novel Fundraising Letters teaches you how to tell original, real-life stories that involve and inspire your donors. Using dozens of examples from successful appeal letters, this practical, hands-on workshop shows you step by step how to get the attention of today’s distracted donors, arouse their interest, draw them in with gripping human-interest stories, and motivate them to respond with a gift.

• Date: Thursday, September 28, 2006
• Time: 9 am to 4 pm
• Location: Richmond, British Columbia. Best Western Richmond Hotel and Convention Centre.
• Presenter: Alan Sharpe, President, Raiser Sharpe
• Early Bird Price: $179 before September 14, 2006—a $50 saving
• Regular Price: $229 after September, 2006
• Register: Click here.

This workshop is one of two that Alan Sharpe is offering back-to-back in Richmond only. The other one is on Friday, 29 September (the day after this one), at the same location. It's called Run a Successful Direct Mail Fundraising Program. Read the details here.

You will learn:

• how to grab your donor’s attention with original envelopes
• how to start your letters in dramatic ways so that your donors simply can’t put them down
• where to find exciting and inspiring stories within and outside your organization—even if your case for support seems mundane
• how to dramatize the dull by harnessing the power of fascinating facts
• how to use intrigue, suspense, dialogue and other simple fiction techniques to keep your readers reading

Got a question? Call  our workshop hotline: 1 877 742-7732.

Learn the Insider Secrets of Writing Blockbuster Fundraising Letters.

Your donors will not respond to—never mind read—boring appeal letters. Today’s busy, distracted donors won’t donate to unexciting causes.

Blame it on Survivor and American Idol. Blame it on cell phones, iPods, Blackberries, digital TV, satellite radio, junk mail, spam and telemarketers. Blame it on the thousands of other charities competing for your donor’s loyalty. But don’t blame your donor.

Your donor, like everyone else, will only read fundraising letters that are novel. Different. Original.

Your direct mail appeal letters shouldn’t be as long as a novel but they should be just as interesting to read. You need to use the novelist’s creative writing techniques to make your appeal letters more dramatic, more interesting—and more profitable.

Learn how during this action-packed one-day workshop.

You’ll discover:

• how to persuade your donor to take that kitchen knife and slit open . . . your envelope
• how to enter shooting (with an irresistible letter opening)
• how to use fear and loathing and other emotions to your advantage
• where to find the victim, villain or vexation that’s essential to every appeal
• how to arrest your donor—with your copy
• how to build up to a climax (and a donation)

This workshop is one of two that Alan Sharpe is offering back-to-back in Richmond only. The other one is on Friday, 29 September (the day after this one), at the same location. It's called Run a Successful Direct Mail Fundraising Program. Read the details here.

Workshop materials

You'll leave this workshop with a soundly researched workbook that contains step-by-step, practical guidelines for using the vital skills you've just learned.

A special message from your trainer . . .

Dear fundraising professional,

The most successful fundraising letters today are gripping. They take donors to crack houses, battlefields, logging protests, prisons, famines and other places they would never set foot themselves.

They show non-profit organizations engaged on the front lines in the battle to right wrongs, correct injustices and make the world a better place.

Even organizations that have seemingly mundane mandates are finding creative ways to weave facts and fiction techniques to create vivid, captivating letters. You can, too.

During this riveting one-day workshop you’ll learn the simple, proven fiction techniques that professional direct mail fundraising copywriters use today to make their appeal letters more appealing.

You’ll learn the mistakes to avoid, the best practices to implement right now, and the tips, techniques and shortcuts that you can use for years to come. Register now.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Sharpe, President
Raiser Sharpe

Remember: Picture Mark Twain sitting down to craft a fundraising letter. It wouldn’t be dull! If you want to make your appeal letters novel, attend Novel Fundraising Letters. Learn the creative writing techniques you need to make your next appeal a smash hit. 

Workshop Outline

Start with a gripping plot

• where to find compelling themes
• why conflict and turmoil work in appeals just as well as they do in novels
• where to find your victim, villain, vexation or calamity
• anger, irritation and other useful emotions that belong in your letters

Enter shooting

• why your envelope is the opening scene you can’t mess up
• how Agatha Christie would start your fundraising letter if she were you
• how to use questions, anecdotes, narrative, statistics, facts, jokes, teasers and other literary devices to grab your donors
• why you should kill your Dear Friends (and use a more personal salutation)

Grip your reader like this . . .

• learn how other organizations use intrigue, suspense and dialogue to keep donors on the edge of their seats (reaching for their chequebooks)
• discover the one thing that scares most direct mail donors away
• borrow a lesson from the soap operas for keeping your readers hooked month after month

Convince your reader, or else

• why you must make your donor the heroine (or hero) of your story
• how to use flash-backs and flash-forwards to persuade donors to give
• why your donors, like novel readers, expect closure (and how to give it)
• how to ask for a donation without surprising your donor

Dramatize the dull

• how to translate your case for support into compelling human terms
• 12 creative ways to make the ask
• how to make your letter, like every good story, about people, not programs
• when and how to use testimonials to make your case for support vivid

Use the right ruse

• re-visit the writing rules you learned in school, and learn how to break them
• learn the proven techniques for turning not-for-profit-speak into vibrant prose
• discover how to use anadiplosis, anaphora, metaphor and other figures of speech to bring your appeal letters alive

Got a question? Call  our workshop hotline: 1 877 742-7732.

What others are saying about your instructor

Comments from participants at Alan's 2004 direct mail fundraising workshop in Winnipeg, on direct mail fundraising letter writing, quoted verbatim from their Workshop Feedback Forms:

• "Most helpful seminar of the session" (anonymous).
• "Great tips for creative and effective communication" (anonymous).
• "Thanks for the great tips. Very applicable, practical" (Jessica B.).
• "Just what I needed" (Brian T.).
• "Terrific! Very beneficial" (anonymous).
• "Very practical and useful. Thanks" (anonymous).
• "Well done. Most informative" (anonymous).
• "Very helpful" (Len S.).
• "Very good! Well worth repeating! Very practical and user-friendly" (Graham G.).

Comments from participants at Alan's 2005 direct mail fundraising workshop in Mississauga, quoted verbatim from their Workshop Feedback Forms:

• "Excellent! A lot of food for thought + application. Very energizing!" (Diane P.).
• "The workshop was great. The room was inadequate to accommodate the audience. Choose a better room for this speaker." (anonymous).
• "Very useful information." (anonymous).
• "Very much enjoyed the high energy, interactive, informative session." (Keren K.).
• "Excellent session. Very useful." (anonymous).
• "Excellent practical tips! I was jotting down opening sentences all session long." Avril H.).

Another reason to attend Novel Fundraising Letters . . .

Your trainer, Alan Sharpe

Alan Sharpe didn’t discover that he wanted to write fundraising letters for a living until he had first fought in the Falklands War, travelled with the circus, lived in a snowhole, taught children with disabilities how to downhill ski and lived in Jane Fonda's old house in Paris.

Today, Alan helps non-profit organizations worldwide to raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors using cost-effective, compelling, creative fundraising letters. His clients include Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, Greenpeace and Medic Alert.

Alan has taught direct mail copywriting at the university level (at the University of Toronto) and has published over 200 articles on the topic. As a seminar leader and mentor, Alan coaches executive directors and directors of development to craft engaging, warm appeal letters that win the hearts and minds of their donors.

Alan’s popular email newsletter, Direct Mail Fundraising Today, is read weekly by thousands of professional fundraisers worldwide.

Alan served as Director of Development and Communications for two international non-profits, where he was responsible for strategic planning, annual direct mail fundraising campaigns, major giving, planned giving, major events, publicity and other enjoyable headaches. He lives and works in the other London (the one in Ontario, Canada).

The teaching style that Alan uses is energetic, fun, helpful and memorable.

Workshop Timetable

Each workshop session includes time for questions and discussion.

Come prepared to learn by doing!

There are individual, small-group and class exercises to help you gain the most practical, take-away value from each session. 

Got a question? Call  our workshop hotline: 1 877 742-7732.

This workshop is one of two that Alan Sharpe is offering back-to-back in Richmond only. The other one is on Friday, 29 September (the day after this one), at the same location. It's called Run a Successful Direct Mail Fundraising Program. Read the details here.

Details

Cancellations
You may cancel at any time for any reason up to the day of the workshop and receive a refund minus a $25 service fee. We have to pay someone else a fee to register you and to process your credit card payment. The $25 service fee that we levy covers these expenses that we must incur on your behalf.

Lifetime guarantee
Apply the techniques and skills you learn in this workshop. If you're not 100% satisfied with your results, tell us in writing and we'll refund your entire fee immediately.

Location
Best Western Richmond Hotel and Convention Centre
7551 Westminster Highway
Richmond, BC V6X 1A3 Canada
Phone: 604-273-7878
Toll-free: 1-800-669-0299
Fax: 604-278-0188
www.richmond-hotel.ca

Meals and snacks
Coffee, soft drinks and water are available throughout the workshop at no charge. Lunch is on your own, at any of the nearby restaurants.

Parking
The hotel has plenty of parking spaces at no charge.

Questions
Phone our workshop hotline at 1 877 742-7732 or write to us at

Registration
Register for this workshop here.

Recording
This workshop is fully copyrighted. What you see and hear and hear is the property of Raiser Sharpe. No audio or video recordings are allowed.