AUTHOR’S GAB, READER TALK.
A LETTER TO YOU, THE READER, SO THAT YOU CAN FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT I’M THINKING.
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THIS MONTH: Writing support letters
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“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
— Ernest Hemingway
Dear Reader,
It was the end of February 2020 and I was panicking. I had signed up to go on a mission trip to Narok, Kenya, but I didn’t have any money to go. I had said that, if my appeal to the mission board for money for the trip went through and I received money to go, I would definitely begin fundraising. But, when my application for funds for the trip did go through, I looked at the amount and realized it wasn’t nearly enough to get me to our first financial due-date on February 29. Not only that, I had one week to raise the rest of the money. So, I stepped it into high gear and started asking around to see what I could do to raise the cash I needed to go.
I amazingly hit my goal on February 29, but I wasn’t done fundraising. So, I kept asking. And, on Sunday, March 1, I got the chance to ask Pastor Steve Anderson, senior pastor of Kensington Church, what he would do. He reiterated what everyone else was telling me. “Well, you can send out support letters,” he said. “That always works.” Consequentially, on March 3, I wrote up a support letter and started sending them out to basically everyone I knew, asking for money for the mission trip in June. This month, I hope I can walk you through my process of how I wrote the letter, and maybe it will help you if you have to write one of your own.
When I sat down to actually write this letter, I realized immediately that I didn’t know how to write one. I had paid off my past trips myself from my personal finances, so I never had the need to write one of these letters, except when I went to Jamaica on a mission trip with my high school senior year. I don’t particularly like asking people for money. I don’t think anyone does. In this case, however, it was necessary. Therefore, I just sat down and wrote the thing, the best way I knew how.
A friend had said she had two letters: one for her Christian friends and one for her non-Christian friends. This was something I didn’t do. Instead, I just wrote one letter to everybody, whether I was talking about Jesus or not. In the end, I found it was better to be concise. Tweaking my message for my audience didn’t help my cause. Spitting out what I had to say as I thought and felt it and stating what I needed was better.
Confession: I didn’t write this letter in Microsoft Word. Actually, I wrote it on GoFundMe, in the bio section, as I was typing up my GoFundMe page. You see, as I felt more and more daunted by the task of writing a support letter and what I should say or write, I actually just let my cursor hover over the Pages document I had prepared and wrote nothing. Sometimes, it turns out, the more you research how to do something and talk about doing something, the harder it is to actually do it. But, when I was faced with the task of just stating who I was and what I needed to complete my fundraising website, it became much easier. Words just started coming out as I typed away on the keyboard. And soon, I had a letter.
So, the best advice, number one, I can give you if you’re trying to write a support letter is to be as true as you can. Like Ernest Hemingway says in his quote, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” Or, another way to say it is: state the facts. Ask the basic questions of who, where, why, what and how. Tell the reader what’s happening, where you are going and why you are motivated to go on this trip. Make sure you include specific details about the trip, like when and where you are going, reference the organization you’re going with and what you’ll specifically be doing on the mission. Be frank about your team’s mission statement for the trip and what you hope to accomplish by it in the end. Also, make sure to state the cost of the trip and how much you will need to raise and by what dates you’ll need to raise the money. Honesty is the policy. The more honest and forethcoming you are, the more likely your appeal is to connect with your readership, which could also, hopefully, end up being your sponsorship.
The next thing I would say is: support letters are about stating the facts and asking for a response, like call and response. What you would like is for readers to respond to your call and become sponsors of your trip, so structure the letter that way. Start with the facts about the trip and end with what you need and how your readers can respond. Also include why you would like them to respond that way. In the case of writing a support letter, obviously you want people to end up praying for you or giving you money to go on the trip, so you want to frame your reasoning well. Say something like, “I unfortunately cannot raise this money on my own and need your help to finance this trip.” This will imply a need for a response and force people to think about action.
The best example I can give about the letter’s structure comes from music, where call and response is common. Call and response, in music, is a succession of two distinct phrases usually written in different parts of the music, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or in response to the first. A piano will play a few notes, for instance, and a drum will respond, as in this example from jazz music: https://youtu.be/pxg4AP1MKDk. Or, someone will sing a verse and another person will echo with another verse, as in this example from gospel music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMgNTwZW5gY. As you can see, the primary singer gives a call and the other singers give the response. Or, the piano gives the call and the drums give the response. Similarly, you need to give a call to start the letter, which will likely be facts and truths about the trip and end with the requested response.
At the end of the letter, it’s important to include a section to thank people who do respond for their financial contributions and prayers. And, it’s important to stay grateful when you write this section of the letter and afterwords when people are actually donating. Each donation is a personal sacrifice on your behalf for the mission and it’s important to remember that. And, it’s not always easy for people to give. Some people can’t give and can only pray. So, in your letter, say something like, “Thank you all so much for your donations and your prayers,” and make sure to list how people can pray for you and your team. Then, when people start donating, make sure to follow up with a personal, hand-written thank-you note. This is to make sure people genuinely know how much they are appreciated and how much their prayers, contributions and investments in the mission mean to you and your team. Then, once you have gone on the trip, make sure to follow up with a letter on how the mission went and how God answered the prayers of you and your team. Even if you don’t end up going at all, make sure to thank people and talk about what you have learned from the experience.
In this way, the letter is just the initial thank you. Indeed, there are many thank you’s to say to those who support you after that. The letter is just the initial appeal to see if people will support you at all. Therefore, it’s best to immediately follow up your request in the letter with an immediate thank you. It will show people your heart for God and your mission, as well as your support for those you are asking to sponsor you.
Finally, I want to include some advice about printing the letter. When I wrote my support letter, I quickly found out that printing the letter was going to be a major issue. Not only did I need paper, I also needed ink, stamps, return labels and a sore hand from getting and writing down everyone’s addresses. I also have a habit of personally sealing my letters with a sticker, so I also had to buy stickers for the the backs of the letters. And, no, we don’t do wax seals here, but you’re welcome to do that if you like! Nothing wrong with that. So, I can imagine that, if you’re sitting down right now and saying, “Gosh, I have to get that support letter written for my upcoming mission trip,” no doubt this is what you are also thinking and dealing with.
Printing, for me, took as much time as the actual letter did to write, so make sure you have some time to do this, first of all. And, I’m not talking about 45 minutes, more like an uninterrupted Saturday morning and possibly into the afternoon kind of time. So, whenever you usually have time to get things done, that’s the time to use to do this. That’s point one.
Point two of advice is to make sure, before you do any actual printing, that you have the right paper and supplies. This might require a little shopping. I had to make a couple trips to Paper Source and order stationary online from Staples, for instance, before I could do any actual printing. I wanted something that would frame my letter so it would look fancy in the end, rather than going with blank 99 cent paper. Not to say you’re not welcome to use said 99 cent paper, if that’s what you want to use. I have seen all different kinds of support letters in my day and no two have been alike. So, just make sure you have an idea of what you want the finished product to look like in your head before picking out your supplies. Then, make sure you have your supplies before actually printing the letter.
Point three on this is how you go about actually printing the letter. Make sure you either A) have tons of extra ink and paper or B) have a little extra cash to get this done at Staples. For me, printing was easier to do at Staples because it was faster and I don’t have all that extra ink, but it was also more expensive. So, it’s a trade-off: save money and deplete your ink at home or spend $100 and deplete the store’s ink. Your pick. Whatever works for you. Personally, I wish I had all the extra ink at home, but it was nice to get it done professionally in-store.
Ultimately, despite my 5-page support letter, complete with pictures, honestly, proper appeal, thanks and all the ink and paper, my mission trip with SOS Adventure and Auburn Hills Christian Center to Narok, Kenya in June 2020 was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic on April 1, 2020. Like so many who have had major events like this canceled due to the pandemic, I was disappointed. It was tempting to feel like the two months of hard word and effort I had put into making the trip happen were wasted. But, like a friend told me when I expressed my disappointment, “We are all grieving in different ways.” And, it’s just important to thank Him for keeping us safe during this once and a lifetime experience we are all going through right now in this pandemic, even if we are definitely missing some major things in our lives, like mission trips to foreign countries.
But, if you’re reading this and it’s July 2020 and this whole pandemic thing has blown over (watch, July 2020 me is going to laugh at this), and maybe you’re saying to yourself, “I think I need some advice on writing this letter to raise support for my mission trip I just signed up for,” then look no further than this Ad Lib. As long as you remember to: be honest, state the facts, format the letter like a call and response, say thank you, have enough time and get the right supplies, I think you’re going to be ok. Remember: a support letter isn’t just an obligatory letter you have to get money for your mission trip. It’s the start of a relationship with those you want to sponsor you, or even the continuation of one if you already know people. Write it like you were talking to a friend about going on your trip. Be concise. But, most importantly, share your heart.
Think about that. ~
Sincerely, Your Author,
Jessica A. McLean
The Rose 