For most people, donating is the easy part. If you fall into this category, then this article is for you. While you’ve done the honorable thing by donating, for your donation to achieve its intended aim, you need to ensure you leave instructions. While the organizers often decide what happens with your donation, sending a letter to accompany your donation informs them of your desires.
What is a Letter to Accompany Donation?
After making a donation for whatever cause, a message written to accompany is what is known as a letter written to accompany donation. It can be an email, an official letter, or a message. Regardless, whenever a donation is made, it must be followed by a message meant for the organizers or other purposes.
Reasons to Send a Letter to Accompany a Donation
After making a donation, why should you include a message? In this section of this article, we’re going to list the reasons you should send a message to accompany your donation.
Translate Any Request or Wishes
If after making your donation you have any requests or wishes, the letter accompanying your donation is the best place to inform the organizers of this request. This wish or request can be from something as common as wishing to remain anonymous to elaborate steps on how you want the donation split across causes. So, if you have any special wishes when you make a donation, ensure to utilize this chance to do that.
Doubles as a Vote of Thanks
If you’re attending a fundraising event where you may be required to give a speech or a vote of thanks, a message accompanying your donation makes this easier. If all the donors and their messages are going to be in print, you may want to be careful about what you write. This means if you intend of giving details on how you want the donation allocated, you may want to leave out that bit in the part that gets published.
For Documentation Purposes
If you do a lot of donations, sending letters to accompany your donations also helps you to keep a record of your donations. This way you know where you sent what to and for what. Also, it helps the organization in its recordkeeping as well.
Include Reasons for Your Donation
Don’t get me wrong, your donation doesn’t always need to have a reason. If you’re donating for solely altruistic reasons, then there’s no reason to bother yourself about this section. But if you have a reason for donating, a motive guiding your actions and you’re interested in talking about it, a message accompanying your donation is a great place to discuss this.
Since there are no guidelines, you can divulge as much or as little as you wish.
Other Information
If you have other information you’d like to pass on or request, it should be included in the message accompanying your donation.
READ MORE: Business E-mail Writing (With Samples)
How to Write a Letter to Accompany Donation
In this section of this article, we’re going to discuss how to write a message to accompany a donation. It doesn’t matter the format you’re sending your message in, the steps listed here can be applied to achieve the same results.
Address it to the Right Party
When writing a letter to accompany a donation, you need to ensure it’s addressed to the right party. Not only that, it should be done formally. Letters are official documents and as such should follow a particular set of guidelines and principles.
A formal letter should begin with your contact information, preceded by the date and the recipient’s contact information.
Use Correct Salutation
When addressing the letter, ensure to address it to the involved party. If you know who in the organization is personally receiving the letter, address the letter directly to them. If you don’t, then addressing the letter to the organization also works. An example of this is, “Dear LoveWorld,”
Appreciate the Organization for the Opportunity
The first part of your letter should begin with you thanking the organization for the opportunity to donate to them and make an impact. If you’ve been following the organization for a while and know of their accomplishments, then also touch on it when writing this part of your letter.
State the Motive Behind Your Donation
In the second paragraph, you should state the motive behind the donation. This doesn’t have to be anything grandiose. It should simply be your motivation and the change you hope your donation will move further.
If you’ve been meaning to donate for a while or have been donating for a while, also ensure to include this in your letter. When writing this section, the more personalized the better. But bear in mind that there are no marks for it, this means if you decide to not talk about your motive, you’re well within your rights.
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Include the Amount and Attach Documents
State how much you donated and indicate the documents attached. This is extremely important for documentation purposes.
Explain How You Want the Donation Managed
If you have specific instructions on how you want the donation managed, this is the part where you give detailed information on how you want that to happen. If you want the donation channeled to different parts of the organization, ensure to state this in your letter.
Also, if you’re not the least bit curious about how the funds get managed, you can omit this part in your letter entirely.
Close the Letter
The closing of your letter should be in three stages:
- Thanking them again for the opportunity: When closing the letter, it is important to thank the organization again for the opportunity to donate. This is different from the opening appreciation as it is generally shorter.
- Keeping connection lines open: Encourage the recipient to reach out to you if they have any questions or inquiries.
- Signoff: Any professional sign-off works fine in this kind of letter. The signoff should be followed by your name, and optionally, your role and organization.
Letter to Accompany Donation Sample One
Jane Doe Branch Manager Woculus Inc. 17 Oxford Avenue New York City, May 12, 2023 John Doe Director of Finance Helping Hands South America 456 Company Rd Detroit 1235 RE: Donation from Jane Doe Dear John, Thank you for the opportunity to donate to your cause. I’ve been an avid follower of Helping Hands for the last 5 years and I have been blown away by your accomplishments, you and your team’s commitment, and sheer grit. It’s been my intention to donate to the cause since I learned about it. And I’m grateful to finally be able to do just that. I donated $7,000 dollars (cheque attached). I would like it if this donation was split in half with 50% going to the Cata division and the other 50% to the Layla foundation. Thank you for the opportunity. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or inquiries. Kind Regards, Jane Doe
Letter to Accompany Donation Sample Two
To Whom it May Concern, In these trying times, everyone needs all the help they can get. I’ve been following your organization for a while now and I understand how much you love to effect change. I know your organization makes it their personal interest to ensure the lives of anyone who crosses their path are changed. I am happy to be able to contribute the little I can. I have donated $2,000 and I hope it helps you help more people. Thank you for your service. Kind Regards, John Doe
Letter to Accompany Donation Sample Three
Favor Omo Managing Director Drains Inc. 17 Bakersfield Avenue New York City, February 12, 2023 Sasha Thorne Director of Affairs Nation’s Care South Africa 456 Company Rd Detroit 1235 Hi Sasha, RE: Donation to Nation’s Care Words cannot express the amount of goodwill your organization has sewn into people’s lives in the last 20 years. You’ve impacted thousands of people and It’s been my goal to lend as much help as I can to help you continue the work. Over half a decade ago, you helped me pay my tuition and ensured I remained in school that semester. If not for your gracious help, I would have failed that class. Years later and I am beyond glad to be able to pass it on. I have attached a cheque for $5,000 to this letter and I hope it can ease someone’s stress the same way you eased mine. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or inquiries. Thank you for your time. Kind Regards, Favor Omo
Conclusion
We have discussed everything needed to write a letter to accompany a donation. We’ve also included some samples to help this process easier whenever you need to write a message.
