# Cover to cover

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/11/cover-cover/
- Published: 2009-06-11T16:18:12+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Outside of work, family, and football my passion is for music. It means I subscribe
to more magazines than I ought to, but it does also mean I get occasional post that
is not (a) charity appeals, (b) charity newsletters, (c) bills, or (d) financial
services offers. Of these, in all honesty, I read some of (a) and most of (b), eventually(
c) and none of (d).**

 

And it is the newsletters I receive that got me thinking. Purely because, like the
music magazines I get, some come with a cover letter and some don’t. But of all 
of them that I receive, I realised that I now actually look forward to reading the
cover letter that comes with the Word magazine. In fact of all the newsletters and
magazines I get, it is the only one that I categorically know comes with a cover
letter.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

 

It dawned on me that I always read it before I even open the magazine. I realised
what I liked about it was that it didn’t tell me what was in the magazine, but seemed
to credit me with the intelligence to work this out for myself (or assumed as a 
subscriber I would choose to read it). Either way, the letter is a personal communication
and it is interesting, opinionated, thought provoking and conversational. There 
is nothing predictable about it, and it always comes from the same person. I’m sad
enough to admit I enjoy reading his letters.

 

I went back and checked what I had received with my charity newsletters. The cover
letters weren’t bad by any means, but they didn’t do what the letter from the Word
did – they were much more predictable than that. Sadly, some were pretty much interchangeable
with others, which has got to be pretty bad!

 

I’ve also done a lot of research with donors of different charities about what they
think of the newsletters they receive and I’m pretty sure they think there is room
for improvement. Too many get it, skim it and forget it, or put it to one side for
later (if that ever comes) or simply pop it straight into the recycling pile.

 

Just a thought, but if you looked at the last few cover letters that went with your
newsletters how many would you call genuinely interesting, opinionated, thought-
provoking, or even conversational?

 

Given the world we operate in, I don’t think it would be too difficult to achieve
and wouldn’t it be a great thing if your supporters looked forward enough to receiving
your newsletter to open it immediately just to find out what you had to say before
getting to the newsletter.

 

Worth a try?

 * **[Tony Elischer – Donor World – International Fundraising Conference 2008](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/07/08/tony-elischer-donor-world-international-fundraising-conference-2008/)**(
   8 July 2009)
 * **[WWF to undertake large donor development programme with Pure](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/09/03/wwf-undertake-large-donor-development-programme-pure/)**(
   3 September 2009)
 * **[New Mary Rose Trust appeal seeks new 'crew' of 500 donors](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/12/new-mary-rose-trust-appeal-seeks-new-039crew039-500-donors/)**(
   12 October 2009)