Tuto­r­i­al 3: What makes a suc­cess­ful letter-writer?

A suc­cess­ful let­ter-writer must over­come human iner­tia by putting words on paper. A tough job!

Written by
Jerry Huntsinger
Added
February 26, 2019

Good letter-writers are extremely rare, but here’s how you can spot one.

Look for:

  • An enthusiastic person who really understands human nature and has the capacity to get excited about a new discovery, or angry about injustice, or appalled at poverty.
  • A good writer must be a psychologist and must understand the basic drives of personality.
  • A good writer must be able to deal in universal feelings – not just his or her own personal feelings. Whenever you hear someone say, ‘I would never read that kind of letter’, you know right away that person is still thinking subjectively, rather than objectively.
  • Look for a person who can tell a straightforward story with a beginning, middle and an end. A lot of writers can string together long words, but a good fundraising writer must be able to tell a story.

One major purpose of these tutorials is to help writers learn the techniques of storytelling and discover how to get outside their own skin and motivate people – all by putting words on paper.

© SOFII Foundation 2010-2014.

About the author: Jerry Huntsinger

Jerry Huntsinger

Jerry Huntsinger was revered in direct marketing circles as the ‘dean of direct mail’. Many years ago, Jerry gifted his archive of direct mail tutorials to SOFII. All 57 of them are gems. Together, they add up to a complete ‘how-to’ guide that covers everything you need to know about direct mail fundraising. Sadly, Jerry passed away in August 2023. 

These tutorials were edited and presented to SOFII by Gwen Chapman. Gwen is a passionate advocate for donor-centric fundraising. She is a senior consultant with international experience in the non-profit sector in Canada, the United States, the UK and South Africa. She explains the importance of these tutorials here.

A note from SOFII: These tutorials were first published in a different era. They may contain words or themes that today we find inappropriate. SOFII has preserved the copy in our archive, without editing, in order to offer a true representation of the author’s contributions at the time.

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