Writing a Fundraising Letter
Grade
Grade 8
UNIT
6
•
Compassion
In Unit 6, Lesson 3, “Writing a Fundraising Letter,” students will learn tried and true techniques for writing effective fundraising letters and put their knowledge into practice by writing a fundraising letter to help raise money for the nonprofit organization discussed earlier in this unit: Free Wheelchair Mission.
SUGGESTED TIME:
1 class period
RELATED SUBJECT:
English Language Arts
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Write a persuasive fundraising letter
- Provide evidence to support claims from the nonprofit organization website Free Wheelchair Mission
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
- Video: The Story of Free Wheelchair Mission (2024 Update) by Free Wheelchair Mission (~2 min)
- Prohuman Grade 8 Unit 6 Worksheet 3: Writing a Fundraising Letter
ELA COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL (CSED) NATIONAL STANDARDS MET
LESSON PROCEDURE
Step 1:
- Explain that students will write a fundraising letter for the organization we learned about earlier in this unit: Free Wheelchair Mission.
- Play video: The Story of Free Wheelchair Mission (2024 Update) by Free Wheelchair Mission (~2 min)
- The guidelines for the fundraising letter are on the worksheet.
- Explain that students will share their letters with three classmates for peer review. It is recommended that the teacher assign the groups.
- Explain that students' essays will be evaluated on the criteria listed on the worksheet.
Step 2:
- Discuss seven best practices for writing a fundraising letter (adapted from The Storytelling Nonprofit):
1. Know your audience
- Why would the person care about this letter?
- What would they consider important about the message?
- What can create a connection between my writing and the reader?
2. Make it easy to read.
- Make sure that all paragraphs are concise and easy to scan. Sometimes, paragraphs may just only be one sentence. You’ll also want to strategically use bolding or italics to call extra attention to key points in your letter.
- Keep the readers’ eyes moving.
3. Get to the point early.
- Make sure people know why you’re writing to them, what's in it for them, and why they should continue to read.
4. Write as if you’re having a conversation.
- No one wants to read an impersonal letter that sounds like it was written from a template.
- As freelance direct mail writer Harry B. Walsh wrote, “The tone of a good direct mail letter is as direct and personal as the writer’s skill can make it … It’s a message from one letter writer to one letter reader.”
5. Create a sense of urgency.
- One of the ways to do this is by giving a deadline on which the fundraiser ends.
- You could also talk about the need for something getting done sooner rather than later, and actually giving people good reasons why that needs to happen today.
6. Show donors they’re part of the change.
- Good fundraising writing communicates to donors how they're going to make a difference.
7. Tell an interesting story.
- We will look at an example of how a fundraising letter did this.
Step 3:
- The letter on the next page is considered by many to be one of the greatest fundraising letters ever written.
- It was written to raise money for Covenant House, a shelter for homeless children. The letter was mailed repeatedly for years and turned Covenant House into a well-funded organization.
GRADE 8 UNIT 6 WORKSHEET 3: WRITING A FUNDRAISING LETTER
Assignment:
Write a fundraising letter of 1-2 pages with the goal of inspiring readers to donate to the nonprofit organization Free Wheelchair Mission.
Fundraising Letter Evaluation Criteria:
Your letter will be evaluated on the extent to which it does the following:
- Meets the 1-2 page length requirement.
- Makes it clear why the reader should care about this organization.
- Is easy to read.
- Gets to the point early.
- Uses a conversational tone.
- Creates a sense of urgency.
- Show readers how they’re part of the change.
- Tells an interesting story.
Prohuman K-12 Curriculum © 2025 by Prohuman Foundation is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/