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Solicitations — Comments Off on Responding Positively
01
Dec 10

Responding Positively







Guidelines : Responding Positively

Responding Positively to Solicitations

Guidelines and Alternate Phrases

  • Express interest in and appreciation for the organization and the cause.
  • Through the years, we have encountered many success stories from those you’ve helped to find life-changing skills.
  • The name of your organization is certainly on the lips of anyone who has followed the plight of the homeless in our community.
  • Because of agency efforts like yours, we as citizens can be proud of our community.
  • You’ve done an admirable job through the years of providing relief for local disaster victims.
  • Morris Chapman, one of our employees, speaks very highly of your efforts toward the prevention of drug abuse. Upon his suggestion, we are enclosing….
  • We are pleased to know your organization is directing its attention toward the need for better mental health care in our community.
  • Thank you for contacting us about the opportunity to help in the restoration of such a rich cultural site as the Nateson Building.
  • We appreciate the attention your organization is focusing on literacy. The plans you describe in your letter will be a welcome relief to many who have difficulty functioning in our complex world.
  • We appreciate the fine work you’ve been doing in our community–for the friends and families of our employees and our corporate neighbors.
  • Your cause is a worthy one that deserves attention from all corporations interested in an educated workforce for the future.
  • State what amount you are pledging or forwarding. If you’re contributing time, be specific about the hours you can volunteer on what days of the week or month.
  • We are enclosing our check for $500 in support of your cause.
  • We are pleased to present to you our $1,000 check for underwriting your efforts with the hospices in the region.
  • Our check for $1,000 will, we hope, help you in supplying the necessary medical equipment.
  • We hope you can use our contribution of $1,000 (enclosed) to alleviate the suffering of some individual with this dread disease.
  • We are pledging our donation of $1,000 to fund the restoration project.
  • For your expansion plans, you can count on our support in the amount of $1,000. We’ve gladly signed the enclosed pledge card.
  • I will be happy to donate a half-day (four or five hours) on the third Saturday of each month.
  • I can volunteer to work the hotline in the early morning hours any time between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Tuesdays.
  • I will be happy to help serve on the project committee with the duties you outlined in your letter.
  • Distinguish between a personal contribution and a corporate one.
  • Although my company cannot contribute at this time, please accept my personal check for $50.
  • My organization is pleased to enclose a check for $500 toward your worthy efforts.
  • On behalf of our organization, I am enclosing our corporate check for $375.
  • Wish the organization success with the campaign for funds or volunteers.
  • We wish you every success in meeting your goal of $1 million.
  • We commend your efforts and wish you success in raising the funds.
  • We appreciate your organization and the fine work you as staff do there. God grant you success in this most recent effort.
  • Thank you for your commitment to eradicate drugs from our schools.
  • Thank you for caring about the plight of our homeless citizens. We wish you success.
  • We wish you success in getting the dollars and donated time you need to carry on this important work.
  • Your efforts deserve our support–both monetary and otherwise. Thank you for your successes.
  • We appreciate your work toward this goal. May you be successful in all you attempt for this worthwhile cause.
  • For all your efforts on behalf of the homeless, we thank you. We wish you success in this current fund-raising project.
  • We have every confidence you’ll meet your goals.
  • We wish you every success in these efforts.
  • Thank you for your commitment to this project; I wish you success.

Example 1: Reply positively to solicitations request

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Your efforts to raise scholarship funds to help young people interested in the social sciences reflect a growing awareness that not all the world’s problems can be solved through scientific or mathematical formulas.

We are happy to enclose our check for $2,000 to the scholarship fund. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to contribute to this educational effort and the long-term mental and spiritual health of our community. We commend your foresightedness and work.

Sincerely,

Example 2: Accept letter for donation,

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

Dear Mr. Sanders:

We are very pleased about your establishing the Echert Scholarship Fund. Such an effort accomplishes two wonderful purposes: a memorial to a marvelous civic leader and a method to contribute to the education of deserving students.

Our company check for $1,000 and my personal check for $50 are enclosed. We sincerely thank you for the opportunity to contribute to someone’s life in this way.

Best wishes in building the program and providing greater resources for future years.

Cordially,

Example 3: Accept request for donation

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip

Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

Dear Mrs. Alvarez:

You should be very proud of the tremendous work you do for the people of Chicago. Young Minds Literary Program is one of the most innovative literacy projects in the country today.

To show our support, 16 of our partners and associates have each agreed to spend ten hours volunteering to help train youth tutors at Chicago Public Library on weekends. We have enclosed a list of names, phone numbers, and dates of the volunteers available.

We wish you the very best in expanding your adult literacy program and your English language classes. Young Minds fills a great need in our community using one of our greatest resources—our young people.

Sincerely,

Example 4: Positive response to fund request

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip

Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

Dear Mr. Cappelli:

We were pleased to receive your letter detailing the efforts of the Clean Break Foundation to fight drug addiction. We agree that one of the best ways to keep people off drugs is to give them other viable options. Your job training and placement program is accomplishing just that. And your ultimate goal to have participants run a cleaning business shows a real commitment to making your program an asset to the community.

It is our pleasure to support the Foundation with the enclosed check for $2,500. We hope this will help get your project off the ground and move you toward self-sufficiency.

We admire your dedication and energetic efforts you have displayed to the Clean Break Foundation. You have an excellent plan, and we are confident you will meet your goals.

Sincerely,

Example 5: Solicitations letters

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip

Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

Dear Ms. Marsh:

We commend Wakefield Little League Association for providing the city’s youth summer recreation for so many years. Learning to be a part of a team is an important part of growing up. In fact, several of our employees learned that lesson as members of a Wakefield baseball or softball team when they were youngsters.

Marion Technology would be proud to sponsor two teams, one under-15 hardball and one under-15 softball, for the upcoming season. Enclosed is a check for $500 to cover the costs for both teams.

Thank you for teaching our children the joys of learning good sportsmanship. We look forward to rooting for Marion Technology’s teams this summer.

Sincerely,

Solicitations — Comments Off on Responding Negatively
01
Dec 10

Responding Negatively







Guidelines : Responding Negatively

Responding Negatively to Solicitations

Guidelines and Alternate Phrases

  • Begin with a neutral opening, stating you have considered the request.
  • We have received your letter about support for the local YMCA summer program.
  • Thank you for writing us to present your fund-raising goals for the rebuilding of Hague Street.
  • Thank you for letting us know of your needs for funding further research.
  • We thank you for writing us about the opportunity to contribute to the Maxim Foundation for Social Research.
  • The project for restoring Milton Square to attract tourists has interesting possibilities.
  • We admire your dedication and tenacity in your ongoing efforts on behalf of the local Heart Fund.
  • Agree on the worthwhile efforts of the organization making the request, if possible.
  • The museum project you contacted us about sounds wonderfully educational.
  • The work you are doing with the Boy Scouts sounds both fascinating and educational.
  • We have received your letter about expansion at the children’s home; your plans sound exciting and will obviously afford the needed room to house more abuse victims.
  • We hear from time to time about the successes you are having in your counseling centers.
  • We agree these people are very deserving.
  • We are happy to learn your organization has taken on the responsibility to see something is done about these community problems.
  • Your efforts with these deserving groups should be appreciated by all of us who want our children to grow up in a safe, healthy community.
  • Begin with your reason, and then state your decision not to contribute on this occasion.
  • We have asked our committee to review all the requests we have received from excellent organizations such as yours, and the members have chosen to support those they feel most worthy. We regret we have contributed our available funds elsewhere this year.
  • As you are probably aware, so many fine organizations such as yours come to us for financial help each year, and we find great difficulty in deciding which causes are most deserving. This year we have allocated most of our funds to the three local drug-rehabilitation facilities.
  • Because we’ve already overextended our budget for charitable causes this year, we simply cannot help you out this time.
  • We’ve found our own funds for worthwhile causes such as yours have had to be directed to helping some of our own employee families through this difficult economic time.
  • As you can probably imagine, we receive hundreds of requests for funds each year, and, as much as we’d like to, we simply cannot respond to all of them.
  • Our committee for earmarking our charitable contributions has directed our funds toward different organizations this year.
  • Our policy is to contribute five percent of our profits to charitable contributions, and we already reached that point earlier in our fiscal year.
  • We don’t mean to offend you and your noble intentions, but our organization simply does not agree with the tenets of your organization and its programs.
  • We wish we could feel more positively toward your fund-raising efforts, but I’m afraid we disagree with the organization’s philosophies and basic interests. Therefore, we must decline to underwrite this current effort.
  • In our organization we have a policy to match every employee’s personal donation with one of our own to the same organization. Therefore, the list of those who receive our contributions is determined by the wishes of our employees individually in their personal giving.
  • We wish we could contribute to your cause, but we simply don’t have funds available this year to do so.
  • Express your good wishes for the organization and the successful fund-raising/volunteer campaign if you agree with the cause.
  • We wish you the best in your efforts.
  • We hope you meet your goal; your cause is entirely worthwhile.
  • You have our best wishes for raising the funds to meet this literacy need.
  • We wish you success in soliciting the volunteers who can help you meet this great need.
  • We appreciate all you’re doing on behalf of the community, and we wish you success in this most recent undertaking.
  • Your organization meets a great need in the community; we wish you success in your fund-raising efforts.
  • Your organization can make a big difference in the lives of the needy; we wish you success in this effort.
  • You have our thoughts and prayers in your efforts.
  • Your plan sounds feasible and sound. We wish you success with it.
  • Yours is an excellent organization, and we wish you every success.
  • Thank you for contacting us about this opportunity; we hope to help you out at a later time.
  • We wish you the best in your fund-raising efforts. Yours is a worthy project.
  • We know many benefit from your services each year; we hope you’ll continue to be able to keep up the excellent work.
  • Thank you for spending such time and effort in improving the community. We wish you success.
  • Without organizations such as yours, our community would not be the nice place to live that it is. We hope you will have every success in meeting your service objectives this year.

Example 1: Reply negatively to solicitations request

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

Dear Mr. Cantelloni:

We have received your letter about the scholarship funds now being established at ACL University. With the high cost of education nowadays, such scholarships can really make a difference in a young person’s direction and later contribution to society.

As you may know, our organization established a committee several years ago to consider and evaluate each request we receive for donations and personal involvement. Our policy is to contribute three percent of our gross sales each year to charitable causes such as yours. This year the committee has decided to contribute our funds to other organizations and their programs. We certainly wish we had unlimited funds to donate to the many needs we see around us, but just like the family budget, ours has its limitations also. Perhaps in other years we can be more positive in our response.

Thank you for letting us know of your efforts toward the scholarship funds, and we wish you every success in meeting your goal to help deserving students further their studies. Education truly demands our attention in corporate America.

Sincerely,

Example 2: Refuse letter for donation

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

Dear Ms. Coats:

Thank you for contacting us about your efforts in establishing halfway houses for abused spouses and their children.

With all of the requests for donations, some time ago we established a comittee to consider all corporate giving and to administer our approved budget for charity. The committee members have reviewed our corporate charitable decisions for the year and find it will be impossible to contribute to your organization at this time.

We want you to know, however, we think you are doing very commendable work in the community. We often feel frustrated by the impossibility we face here in not being able to contribute to every worthwhile opportunity, such as the one you are chairing. We wish we could have had a more positive answer for you.

On behalf of the community as a whole, thank you for the help you are giving these abused families.

Sincerely,

Example 3: Decline request for donation

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip

Date

AddresseeAddress
City, State Zip

Dear Mr. Ivee:

Thank you for notifying us about the good work the Virginia Children’s Fund and Camp Blue Sky do on behalf of diabetic children. You certainly seem to be filling an important need within communities across the state. We know how important it is for diabetic children to become comfortable with managing their health and to feel like normal kids at the same time.

We spend four percent of our revenues each year on charitable donations. According to a policy we instituted three years ago, we distribute the money set aside for charities to the same four organizations in Richmond each year. With our commitment of long term support, those organizations have the benefit of being able to make long-term plans. It also helps us avoid agonizing decisions about who to select from the many worthwhile organizations that request our support. Because of this policy, we regret we will not be able to contribute to your worthy cause.

We thank you for introducing us to your efforts to aid diabetic children. We wish you the best of luck in achieving your ambitious goals.

Sincerely,

Example 4: Negative response to fund request

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip

Date

AddresseeAddress
City, State Zip

Dear Mrs. Lauder:

We appreciate your letter about the efforts of the Concord Art in Public Spaces Foundation. Your interactive sculpture across the street from our office has been a delight to our employees since it was erected. I was pleased to read that you are also planning to place several sculptures in Hyde Park City Gardens.

We usually make our decisions regarding charitable donations for the year by the beginning of March. While we would like to support the Foundation’s contributions to the community, our funds have already been allocated to other charitable organizations.

We would be happy to consider supporting you next year if you could contact us toward the beginning of the year. Until then, we will be watching the City Gardens area for more public art. Thank you for all you do to bring art into our everyday lives.

Sincerely,

Example 5: Responding Negatively

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip

Date

AddresseeAddress
City, State Zip

Dear Ms. Gardner:

We received your letter regarding the wonderful projects the Community Health Initiative has planned for next year. In particular, the plan to build a free clinic on the west side of the city is long overdue. The unavailability of affordable health care in that area in the past has been a detriment to many low-income residents.

We have read recent newspaper coverage about recent troubles your organization is experiencing with excessive spending on administrative procedures and unaccounted funds. Donating our limited charitable funds to local organizations is the primary way we as a corporation help the community. I am sure you understand we are extremely careful about the organizations we select. Until we can be certain your current problems are resolved, we are afraid we cannot make any contributions to the Community Health Initiative.

Nonetheless, we applaud your plans to improve medical care for residents on the city’s west side, and wish you every success.

Sincerely,