 Make
Your Appeal Letters More Personal With The Best Date Format
Are your
fundraising letters impersonal by mistake? That depends on how
you date them. Some dates are more personal than others. Here’s
what I mean.
02/10/2006
If you want your direct mail appeal letter to look as though it
was generated by a machine, use this date format. This one is
especially problematic if you are in Canada with donors in the
US, or vice versa.
Readers who look over your letter years from now won’t be sure
if your date means the 2nd of October or the 10th
of February.
October 2006
If you want your donation request letter to look impersonal, use
this date format. It’s the format used by monthly newsletter
publishers, and so it makes your letter appear mass-produced.
2 October, 2006
This is better. Use this format to show that your fundraising
letter was composed (or at least mailed) on a particular date
(the rest of your letter will show that the letter was mailed to
a particular person, for a particular reason).
Monday, 2 October, 2006
Use this format to make your letter even more personal. Since we
tend to refer to days of the week by name and not by date
(people say, “I eMailed you on Monday” rather than “I eMailed
you on the 4th”), putting the day into your date makes your
letter more personal and easier to refer to. Your reader doesn’t
have to figure out what day of the week the 2nd of
October is, since you tell her it is Monday.
Monday morning, 2 October, 2006
This one may look contrived. And it can be. But if you want your
letter to look as personal and real as possible, and if your
reader won’t think this is fake (and if it isn’t fake), mention
the time of day you are writing. A letter dated “3:46 a.m. 2
October, 2006,” for example, would stand out. Why, after all,
did the executive director sit down at such an early hour to
write to me?
Only use this format if the time of day is relevant, and if you
actually wrote the letter at that time. You shouldn’t lie about
the time of composition any more than you should lie about
anything else in your letter.
Honesty is always the best policy.
For further
information: Alan Sharpe, President, Raiser Sharpe, 38 Wethered
St., London ON N5Y 1G9, 877/742-7732, alan@sharpecopy.com,
www.raisersharpe.com. |
