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:

Below you’ll find key information for crafting a compelling letter that captures your passion for this ministry work and invites others to be a critical part of the experience as a financial partner. You can send the letter either electronically over email or physically via postal mail. 

• Start with a personal greeting: Use the person’s name at the start of your letter in order to communicate warmth and a personal touch.
• Acknowledge your relationship with the reader: Help the person identify who you are. Refer to your last interaction, your shared interests, or simply express your hope that the person (and their family, if applicable) is doing well.
• Update them on your life: Briefly bring your reader up to date on your life, ending with a mention of your involvement in the ministry for which you are now raising support. For example, those doing collegiate internships would include their year in school, college they attend, degree program, involvement in a collegiate church, etc.
• Explain the internship opportunity with your church: What
• 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, what roles you’ll have, and what you hope to accomplishhow you trust it will have a gospel impact.
• 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.
• for partnership: Tell the person that your internship is a support-based role, meaning you’ll need to establish a team of donors who invest in this ministry opportunity. 
• Introduce Reliant: Briefly explain that your church partners with Reliant Mission to offer you this internship opportunity. 
• Make a clear and compelling ask: Offer your reader either a list of three dollar amounts at which to make a financial investment or use a range and pair it with your hope for an average gift. Determine if you’ll be asking for special (one-time) gifts only or also giving the option of recurring (monthly) gifts and craft your ask accordingly. Your trainer will work with you on this to help decide which is the best path for your goal and timeline. Be sure to include a specific date by which you hope to complete the support-raising work for your internship. This section should also include the link to your Reliant giving page - reliant.org/first.last.
• Say thank you for their consideration: This is also a great place to share a final sentence that captures the vision and impact of the ministry work God is calling you to.
• Close the letter by telling the person you’ll reach out soon to follow up: Establishing the expectation that you’ll be following up in a few days or a week’s time is a way of honoring that person and helping the process move along more quickly for youClose 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.: You can include a personal note like, "Hope you and the family are well!" Or you could remind your reader that you'll be following up soon with something like, "I look forward to connecting over the phone next week." 

  Tip
  title Tip
  Handwriting Writing your P.S. by hand will draw their the reader’s 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 

• .

Helpful guidelines and tips

• Keep it to one side of a single page: This will require you to be more concise than you would be in a personal conversation, but it makes the letter more likely to be read.
• Design your letter to be readable: Choose a simple, clean font. Don’t let paragraphs get too long and add a double-space between them. Make sure to leave some white space in the margins rather than extend the text to the edges. Use bolded text sparingly for key sentences like your financial ask. 
• Aim for a conversational tone without being overly casual: The goal is for a professional but also personal letter that communicates the necessary information in a warm tone.  
• Include a picture of you in a church setting: A high-quality photo of you in your ministry context (in a small group, with a person you mentor, at a church retreat, etc) can really help bring your words to life. Write a brief caption under the photo to help your reader know what they are seeing. 
• Include your church’s logo and the Reliant logo: This is a great way to bring color to your letter, as well as a professional look. Logos should be small and placed in the header or footer area.
• Avoid using insider language: Names of specific ministries or events within your local church won’t make sense to your reader. Abbreviations should also be avoided.
• Be sure to include your Reliant giving page link: Since most of your letters will be delivered electronically (via email or over text), ensure the link to your giving page is active so that your reader can easily navigate to the site where they can give.
• Ask a qualified person to review and edit your letter: We all make mistakes and need help with grammar, punctuation, etc. A staff member at your church who is experienced in support-raising could be a great person to ask to help in this way. Choose someone who is detail-oriented and is skilled in written communication. 

What to Avoid 

• Never apologize:  Remember you are providing your reader with an opportunity to be involved in a

• ministry through their resources.

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.

• You believe God is at work in and through the ministry to which He has called you and your task is to invite people to join God in what He is doing.
• Never ask for financial partnership without using dollar amounts: Vague, unspecific asks leave your reader wondering what exactly you are asking for, so offering specific amounts or a specific range is a way to help them know how best to partner with you.
• Never make an ask without communicating your plan to follow up: Make sure your reader knows you will be reaching out to them to discuss the letter, answer any questions, and follow up on a partnership decision within a specific time frame (based on your availability). You can mention your intentions for following up in the body of the letter or in the P.S. section. 

Subj: my ministry at U Mich—letter Ministry at the Univ of Michigan-  letter attached

Jeff -,
 
Hey brother! CanHello again! I can't believe it had been so long since we'd last talked it . It was great so nice to chat for a few minutes the other day.
 
I've attached a copy of the ministry letter I promised you. It explains my missionary role with Reliant Mission and ministry opportunity with New Life Church at the University of Michigan .
 
Take and how you you can partner with me.  Take a look , and letwe's ll talk again soon: I think we said that I'd give you a call next week on Monday?
 
Grace,Joe. Like I mentioned over the phone, I'll plan to follow up with you on Wednesday evening. 
 
Thanks so much,

Joe

P.S. My personal ministry site at ps - www.reliant.org/joe.staffer also has some quick info - , but definitely check out the attached letter first.