I'd be happy to help you as best as I can. To be honest, I'm not sure I had some grand plan of how to do things - I kind of just went with what seemed wise. But obviously it worked out, so I'll just tell you what I did and hope that it will be beneficial to you.
First, when we started raising support, Sara and I put together an idea of what kind of request packet we wanted to send and how we could make it stand out from the sea of packets these churches likely receive. We thought about what information people would want to know and how we could best present that information to them. We ended up with 6 things that we put in each packet.
1) A one-page cover letter. This letter told the very basics about the need for work in Japan, why we wanted to be involved, what our plan was, and what we needed.
2) A one-page intro to our family. This told a little about us as people, such as our interests and personal history - not so much worrying about our qualifications or things like that.
3) A letter from our elders. This was a more formal letter saying what relationship they had with us and why they would encourage others to support us and our work.
4) A letter from Steve Carrell. This expanded on the need for work and who we would be working with.
5) A pledge card along with an addressed, stamped envelope. This allowed people to respond immediately and without cost to them.
6) A DVD with a video about our work. This could be presented to the congregation, for example, but if nothing else gave a more personal touch to the packet.
Actually you can still see our original packet here: http://lestaylorphoto.com/
And you can see our original video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
I think that was our old school approach part, but as you can see we tried to included some things that were more modernized. We never actually wrote a formal letter, for example - we left that up to others. In our personal material we tried to build a reputation and let people get to know us. I think in today's culture that informal (but respectful) material resonates more than a formal letter. We also made sure to design our part a little bit. Our cover page is laid out in a specific way, as is our "about us" page. With computers today this isn't so hard to do - I suppose it's not much different from making a flier for Logos.
As for the digital specific parts, here's what we did.
1) Facebook Page
While this isn't necessarily pivotal, it does help connect with people from all over without having to friend everyone, etc. It also allows us to contact them at any point. We may go a month without saying much, and then for a week or two type several posts. So it doesn't really take a ton of time, but it's an easy way to update everyone at once whenever needed, and it's through a platform that so many people already are using every day.
2) DVD/video
I think this video was one of our best tools. I used iMovie on Sara's Mac and got fairly complicated, but honestly I think even if you just make a short personal video with you and Sandy saying a few words about who you are and what you're doing that would be good. The video aspect I think is more personal than pure pictures and words, and it's easy to share with lots of people at once, so that's also a benefit. Also if you put it up on Youtube you never know who might find you.
3) Blog/Website
Again, not necessary but I think having an online presence is never a bad thing. In our fund raising stage it really helped out and I believe we may have even got a supporter or two out of it. The great part about a website or blog is that you can share all of your information in one central location and point people to that. So for example even if someone else can't support they might be able to point someone who can to your information.
4) Email
One thing I'm pretty sure we did early on was sent an email specifically to people we are close to. We told them that we were looking for support and that if they could help, or at least forward our packet to their elders/missions committee, or anyone they think might be able to help, we would appreciate it. Some were able to step in and help. Some connected us to people who could. We got a good bit of support this way. Of course we also sent out a few messages on Facebook, and that gave us some opportunities too.
I think those are the main things we did. We kind of just branched out in a lot of different directions and it all came together. While the digital world has its share of problems, the ability to connect with friends far and near is so wonderful and it really had a big impact in our fund raising. Hope all of this helps you out as well! If you have a question please let me know and I'll do my best to get back with you soon. I'm pretty bad at writing messages sometimes ... not sure why. I always have been. But I'll still do my best!
No comments:
Post a Comment