Write Fundraising Letter Overlines That Donors Can't Resist
The headline that appears over the salutation in a fundraising
letter is known as the overline. Overlines have one goal: to
persuade your donor to read your letter.
According to direct mail copywriter and author Hershell Gordon
Lewis, the best kind of overline to use in a one-to-one piece of
communication like a fundraising letter is a hand-written
overline, one that looks like a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm.
Hand-written overlines, says Lewis, should not look "produced."
I agree.
Your goal, then, if you decide to use an overline, is to work up
more enthusiasm in your readers than your letter can generate
without the overline. Here are some guidelines to follow.
Don't give too much away The goal of your
overline, like the goal of your envelope teaser copy, is to
arrest attention and arouse curiosity. The quickest way to
depress enthusiasm in your readers is to ask them for a gift
right up front in your overline. Or to say that you will be
asking them for a gift later on in the letter. Don't give too
much away.
So instead of writing this:
Your gift today will help us stop gun
violence.
Write this:
How do you keep a pistol out of the hands of a 12
year old?
Make the reader want to continue reading
You want to intrigue your reader, tease your reader into reading
your opening sentence, then your second sentence, right on
through to the end. So your overline, if you choose to use one,
should set up a predicament, or pose a question, or suggest a
paradox, or in another creative way compel the donor to read on.
Think about signing the overline A
handwritten overline is a little like a P.S. It serves as an
afterthought, a spontaneous thought that the writer had just
before dropping the letter in the mail. One way to emphasize the
one-to-one tone of a fundraising letter is to have the person
who signs the letter also sign the overline with his or her
initials. Your overline would look like this (handwritten, of
course):
Please be sure to read the important update I've
enclosed. A.J.S.
Consider a 3M Post-it Note Recent
advances in printing and mailing machines let you attach a
yellow Post-it Note to the top of your letters. To make these
notes even more powerful, write them in the same color ink that
you use for your signature, and address them to each donor by
name.
Tie your overline into your envelope teaser
copy One way to use overlines is to make them
answer a question or riddle that you created on your mailing
envelope. But be careful here. Your letterhead overline is
really the beginning of your letter and not the conclusion of
your outer envelope teaser copy.
Your overline must work on its own after the envelope is
discarded. Your readers, once they have read your outer envelope
teaser copy, opened your envelope and started reading your
letter, will not likely read your outer envelope teaser copy
again. If they pick up your letter a week from now and start
reading, they will not return to the outer envelope teaser copy
and start reading there.
For this reason, your outer envelope teaser copy and your letter
overline copy must work on their own as two grammatical
thoughts. When your outer envelope teaser copy ends with
ellipses, for example, your letterhead overline must begin with
a capital letter, even though the overline may be completing the
thought that you started on the outer envelope. Make each letter
overline a complete thought on its own, one that begins with a
capital letter.
© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and
in print provided the links remain live and the content remains
unaltered (including the "About the author" message).
More Information:Alan Sharpe is a professional fundraising letter writer, instructor, coach, author and newsletter publisher who helps non-profit organizations to raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors using cost-effective, compelling, creative fundraising letters. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at
http://www.RaiserSharpe.com/ 
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