Long ago I was involved with fund raising for a non profit. I was at
the time selling life insurance for my living.
        I use direct mail to contact my potential clients and I used the same
system for the non profit. The year that I help them they got a 300%
rise in donations. But they could not be bothered with my system when I
left and they went back to struggling for donations.
        I had gone to the post office and asked for the results of their survey
on what mail got read.
        The most often open piece of mail was a personal sized envelope hand
addressed with a return address of a person with a commemorative stamp
on it.
        From experimtation, I found a hand written letter with a greeting to
the persons ( assumed nick name, Bil for william ) Got the best results.
        This would have been a lot of work had I not had the body of the
letters ofset printed from a hand writhen original in black with my
sigature line.
        The date and greeting were not printed but filled in my me in black ink
at the time I would send the letter. I would hand address the envelope
but the return address was printed from my hand writing.
        The look was of a completly hand written personal letter.
        I know this sounds like a lot to go through to ask people for their
money. But it worked and worked well. Now it has been nearly twenty
years since I did this but I'm willing to bet it will still work.

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