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How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals
How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals Now in a completely revised third edition, this classic book shows how to create winning appeals that will realize the full potential of direct mail and online fundraising. Written by fundraising guru Mal Warwick, with assistance from Eric Overman, this comprehensive resource gives nonprofit fundraising staff the information needed to write compelling fundraising appeals for any medium. If you follow Warwick’s guidelines, your direct mail and online fundraising campaigns will produce better results, year after year. Written in an easy-to-read style, the book is filled with practical techniques, proven approaches, and illustrative examples of both successful and unsuccessful appeals based on the authors’ wealth of experience fundraising for hundreds of nonprofits. Step-by-step and appeal by appeal, the book shows how to navigate the fundraising appeal process with ease. To meet the demands of today’s socially connected donors, this new edition explains how to mesh today’s online technologies with direct mail to produce optimal fundraising results. You’ll learn how to use e-mail, websites, Facebook, Twitter, and mobile technology to recruit more donors and raise more money. The book includes current research on timely topics such as online vs. offline behavior, online giving statistics, demographics, and best practices in integrated fundraising. If you’re a nonprofit professional eager to master the latest methods in fundraising, or simply need to write direct mail appeals for your organization, How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals will help you hone your skills and create appeals that will hit the mark every time.
- GenresBusiness
382 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
16 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Mal Warwick
30 books490 followersMal Warwick has been reviewing books on his blog, www. malwarwickonbooks.com, since January 2010, typically posting three to five reviews per week. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Northern California Book Reviewers and serves on the board of directors of the Bay Area Book Festival. He is also a member of the Author’s Guild and has been a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America since the 1970s.
Mal’s most recent book is Hell on Earth: What We Can Learn from Dystopian Fiction (July 2017). He is the author, co-author, or editor of 20 other books, including The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers and the best-selling fundraising text, How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals, Third Edition.
Mal is a principal in two businesses: a fundraising agency for nonprofits named Mal Warwick Donordigital, which he founded in 1979, and the One World Play Project, manufacturers of a virtually indestructible soccer ball that benefits more than 50 million children in 176 countries. The One World Play Project is a B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation. Mal serves on the board of directors.
For three decades—the 1980s, 90s, and 00s—Mal focused on the nonprofit sector as an author, consultant, and public speaker on marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations and on the private sector as an advocate for socially and environmentally responsible business policies and practices. He is the founder of Mal Warwick Donordigital, which maintains offices in Berkeley, California and Washington, DC. The firm has served nonprofit organizations nationwide since 1979. MWD is a Founding B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation and is now employee-owned. Mal remains as chair of the board.
A serial entrepreneur, Mal has been active in promoting social and environmental responsibility in the business community nationwide for more than two decades. He is the co-author of Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun with Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Along with Cohen and others, Mal was a co-founder of Business for Social Responsibility in 1992 and served on its board during its inaugural year. In 2001, after more than a decade as an active member of Social Venture Network, he began a six-year stretch (2001-7) on its board, serving as Chair for four years. He also was a member of the Founding Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002-3.
Among the hundreds of nonprofits Mal and his colleagues served over the years are many of the nation’s largest and most distinguished charities as well as six Democratic Presidential candidates and scores of small, local, and regional organizations. Collectively, Mal and his associates have been responsible for raising more than one billion dollars in the form of small gifts, all of them from individuals.
From 1965 to 1969, Mal was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan.
Mal’s most recent book is Hell on Earth: What We Can Learn from Dystopian Fiction (July 2017). He is the author, co-author, or editor of 20 other books, including The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers and the best-selling fundraising text, How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals, Third Edition.
Mal is a principal in two businesses: a fundraising agency for nonprofits named Mal Warwick Donordigital, which he founded in 1979, and the One World Play Project, manufacturers of a virtually indestructible soccer ball that benefits more than 50 million children in 176 countries. The One World Play Project is a B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation. Mal serves on the board of directors.
For three decades—the 1980s, 90s, and 00s—Mal focused on the nonprofit sector as an author, consultant, and public speaker on marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations and on the private sector as an advocate for socially and environmentally responsible business policies and practices. He is the founder of Mal Warwick Donordigital, which maintains offices in Berkeley, California and Washington, DC. The firm has served nonprofit organizations nationwide since 1979. MWD is a Founding B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation and is now employee-owned. Mal remains as chair of the board.
A serial entrepreneur, Mal has been active in promoting social and environmental responsibility in the business community nationwide for more than two decades. He is the co-author of Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun with Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Along with Cohen and others, Mal was a co-founder of Business for Social Responsibility in 1992 and served on its board during its inaugural year. In 2001, after more than a decade as an active member of Social Venture Network, he began a six-year stretch (2001-7) on its board, serving as Chair for four years. He also was a member of the Founding Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002-3.
Among the hundreds of nonprofits Mal and his colleagues served over the years are many of the nation’s largest and most distinguished charities as well as six Democratic Presidential candidates and scores of small, local, and regional organizations. Collectively, Mal and his associates have been responsible for raising more than one billion dollars in the form of small gifts, all of them from individuals.
From 1965 to 1969, Mal was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 3, 2019
Great book! Writing fundraising letters seemed like something others can do, not me; it would take years of study. Years of study can help--as well as years of practice and experience--but now writing material that can raise funds seems approachable, not impossible.
November 4, 2019
One of my go-to books on fundraising!
January 9, 2026
A bit outdated (2013; the internet is an entirely different place today). But the principles are still very, very sound and the vast majority of what he writes still applies. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews