Hi Maddie - What a great idea to include a story of impact. And wow - 13 kittens?! That is a story right there! I hope you'll find the mailing successful. Canva works well for designing so many things (brochures, postcards, letters, etc) and you can also have Canva print the letter and mail them to you or you can download them to print internally or elsewhere. I belive Canva may offer mailing services as well, though I'm not sure how their prices compare or how big your mailing list is, but that might be an option. Interestingly enough, Powerpoint can also be used as a design tool. You just change the size of your "slide" to 8.5x11 or whatever size paper you're planning to use, and then save the Powerpoint as a PDF once you're ready to go to print. Word works too, as long as you're doing just some basic design - like adding in a few photos and your logo/letterhead.
As part of our Maddie's Fostering 4 Rock Stars program at Cat Adoption Team, we share a couple of fundraising letter examples in our materials. They might help spur your creativity and show how to condense your story while retaining its heart. You can find them under the "Fundraising" section here: catadoptionteam.org/services/fostering-4-rockstars. Hope that helps!
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Heather Miller
Communications & Development Manager
Cat Adoption Team (CAT)
Sherwood OR
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-22-2023 11:12 AM
From: Maddie Corey
Subject: Mailing Fundraisers- Best Platform and Advice?
Hi from Simply Cats in Boise, Idaho!
I'm currently working on our annual No Show Ball campaign. Typically, we send out an invite with an RSVP letter to not attend by donating. The past few years, we have not received as much donations as we've anticipated. I believe it's because we never share a story in the campaign, to show where donations go.This year, I'm doing a mailing fundraiser that is a letter including a story of a mama cat and 13 kittens she was found with.
I'm struggling to find resources on the best platform to use to create this letter. Word? Canva? In Design? I'm also not sure how many pages it should be. The story is a little lengthy, but because they had a lot of medical issues. I want to show their before and afters, but I know they recommend to keep mailing fundraisers shorter.
Does anyone have advice on what they've done in the past and seen success with?
Thank you,
Maddie
#FundraisingandDevelopment
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Maddie Corey
Simply Cats
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