Contents of the Letter

When writing a ministry team letter, use the sample letter as your guide. The personal segments must obviously be rewritten, but many of the portions of the letter can be copied.  Here is a list of items that all ministry team letters should include:

• Date. Give your letter a specific date.
• Personal Greeting. Your greeting should be handwritten (unless you normally type your correspondence) and to a specific person—not “Dear Friend!”
• Acknowledge your relationship with the reader. What can you say that will help the person identify with you? Refer to your last visit or letter, business concerns, sports interests, known struggles, hobbies, etc., to help the reader say, “Oh yes, I know who you are!”
• Update. Briefly bring your reader up to date on what you’re doing.
• Educate your reader. Explain the program you are going to be a part of: what its purpose is, why you have decided to participate, and what you hope to accomplish.
• Explain the need. The purpose of your letter is to give your reader an opportunity to help. Make sure you explain exactly what is needed.
• Involve them.  Then involve your reader by asking them for specific action, based on the needs you have shared. This can include challenging them to cover part or all of the cost of the training, stating the deadline for their gift, and sharing the benefits that will come to Reliant, you and the reader as the need is met. Specific action includes not only your request, but also your commitment to follow up by phone.
• Acknowledge your relationship again with an emphasis on thanks, appreciation, gratitude, partnership and commitment. This ties your opening acknowledgment to your request.
• Close the letter and sign it.

• Add a P.S. Commit yourself to a specific action you will be taking. Example: “I’ll call you on March 30, if I don’t hear from you by then. I look forward to hearing from you.” If you are sending a printed letter, handwrite your P.S.

  Tip

  Handwriting your P.S. will draw their attention and make it stand out to the reader.

• Emphasize some text. Use underlining or a change in font to emphasize the most important parts of your letter (i.e. Reliant’s needs, your request, and the time and date you will call them for a decision). If you are sending a printed letter, do this by hand in a contrasting color of ink. However, use this sparingly, or it becomes ineffective.
• Add the Reliant logo to your letter. Logos of partner ministries may also be appropriate. Photos may also be used, or you may want to keep it plain.

Letter writing notes

• Use correct grammar, but write in an easy-flowing conversational manner.
• Keep typewritten paragraphs to six lines. Shorter paragraphs enhance the readability of the copy.
• Add a line in between paragraphs.
• If you have a second page, divide the sentence at the end of page one so the reader will have to turn to page two to finish reading the sentence.
• Keep sentence structure simple and uncomplicated. Guard against using incomplete sentences.
• Use correct spelling. When in doubt, look it up!
• Avoid beginning a sentence, especially the first sentence of a paragraph with “a,” “an,” or “the.”
• Begin sentences with “action” words (verb forms such as “-ing” words) or good transitions (such as prepositional phrases) to keep the interest of the reader and to enhance the flow from one thought to another.
• Vary paragraph beginnings. Avoid beginning every paragraph with “I”.
• Use a personal form for the ministry letter. This means using a comma after the salutation rather than a colon and not using an inside address (The addressee’s address).
• Always give your letter a specific date.

Things to Avoid 

Never apologize 

Never apologize for writing or calling a person whom you wish to involve in helping meet a need. You are providing them with an opportunity to be involved in a spiritual ministry through their resources. Remember, the giver needs to give far more than any person or cause needs to receive a gift. “Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account” (Philippians 4:17). When you apologize, you appear to be a beggar rather than a child of the King!

Never ask for a general amount, with no time frame in which to take action.

You should challenge people to give a specific gift, or at least give them a specific range. The specific challenge of $250, $100 or $50 or whatever amount is comfortable has been included in this material. Never ask for less than this challenge. If people want to support Reliant but can’t give at least $50, they will let you know and not be offended by your request.

Never use abbreviations or slang without first explaining what you mean.

The first time you use abbreviations like LT, MTD, etc, spell the words out completely. Be sure to explain what you mean by “life groups” or other unique terms.