Sample Donations Letter
From SecularPortal
Contents |
[edit] Sample Donation Letter
The letter below can be used to ask for donations from anyone and everyone you can think of. Please check the thread on the forum [1] to see who still needs to be contacted and remember to let Jenna know if you're writing to someone so she can keep an up-to-date record.
Dear NAME,
I am very excited to write to you as a representative of the newly-formed National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS for short). We are an organisation that aims to provide a national voice, support and resources for further and higher education student societies without faith.
The AHS, like the Secular Student Alliance in the USA, aims to increase the collective power of the growing number of irreligious students in our schools and universities. The response so far has been overwhelming, with nine societies already on board and more expressing interest every day.
As a long-standing supporter of [THE NSS / BHA / ATHEISM/ SECULARISM / HUMANISM / STUDENTS / INSERT RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE ETC], I was hoping that you would be interested in helping us off the ground with a donation. The AHS is run for students, by students, and consequently at present has no funds with which to achieve its aims. With your help we will be able to lend support to societies facing hostile student unions or religious groups, and encourage the foundation of new societies across our education system.
The AHS has provided an inspirational experience for the groups involved so far and we would love to continue our work all over the UK. We are holding a national press launch party on [19th FEBRUARY 10AM] in Conway Hall, London and would be delighted if you could attend.
Yours faithfully,
[signature goes here]
NAME RANK
To make a donation, please send a cheque payable to [OUR BANK ACCOUNT NAME] or feel free to contact me for more information.
[edit] Notes
- Don't forget to put your address in the top right hand corner, so the person you're sending it to can reply
- Format the document properly i.e. 'justify' in Word.
- If you're writing to a lord, lawyer or some other unusually-titled person don't forget to look up the correct way to address them.
- The third paragraph needs careful attention. Take time to edit this well and be sure that you know into which camp the person you're writing to falls (BHA supporter? NSS supporter? Both? Neither? Human rights campaigner? etc).
- The booking for the press launch will hopefully be made soon, and we can start sending these out as soon as we have a date, time and place to invite people to. Similarly we can't send these out until we have a bank account, but there's no harm in starting to personalise letters in readiness!
- This letter is intended to be for soliciting donations; we do still need to get in touch with societies that we want to affiliate with but a different letter will probably be required for that.
- Chloe and I are quite happy with this, but any suggestions are welcome and it's there to be downloaded and tinkered with if you want to make any personal changes. Please leave the original where it is though, so other people can use the unedited version.
- Have fun! Getting letters from Parliament/famous people is brilliant!
[edit] BHA Supporters
- Adele Anderson
- Jane Asher
- Professor St Michael Atiyah OM FRS
-
John Austin MP -
Lord Avebury - Julian Baggini
- Professor Brian Barry
- Professor Simon Blackburn
- Harold Blackham
-
Baroness Blackstone - Professor Colin Blakemore FRS
- Dr Susan Blackmore
- Sir Thomas Blundell FRS
- Faith Brook
-
Rt Hon Nick Brown MP - Alan Brownjohn
- Sir Roy Calne FRS
-
Michael Clapham MP - Sir Kenneth Clucas
-
Michael Connarty MP The Viscount Craigavon- Professor Sir Bernard Crick (deceased)
- Dr Helena Cronin
-
Lord Dubs - Maureen Duffy
- Professor R I M Dunbar FBA
- Professor Sir Anthony Epstein CBE FRS
-
The Viscount Falkland - Professor Frank Furedi
- Peter Goodfellow FRS
- Sir James Gowans CBE FRCP FRS
-
Lord Graham of Edmonton - Sir Francis Graham-Smith FRS
-
Mike Hall MP - Professor John L Harper CBE FRS
- Lord Harrison
- Rt Hon The Lord Hattersley
- Dr James Hemming
- Julie Hesmondhalgh
- Professor Robert Hinde FRS
- Lord Hughes of Woodside
- Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
- Professor Hugh Huxley FRS MBE
- Dr Michael Irwin
- Professor Sir Alex Jeffreys FRS
- Professor Steve Jones
- Anish Kapoor
- Miriam Karlin OBE
- Randal Keynes OBE
- Glenys Kinnock MEP
- Professor Sir Hans Kornberg FRS
- Professor Sir Harold Kroto FRS
- Ashok Kumar MP
- Warren Lakin
- Sir Michael Levey LVO FBA FRSL
- Ken Livingstone
- Sir John Maddox FRS
- Alice Mahon
- Dr Michael Majerus
- Kenan Malik
- Lord McCarthy
- Professor Sheila A M McClean
- Ian McEwan
- Fiona Millar
- Warren Mitchell
- Lord Monkswell
- Suzanne Moore
- Julie Morgan MP
- Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan MP
- Diane Munday
- Professor Richard Norman
- Professor Sir Roger Penrose FRS
- Colin Pickthall
- Terry Pratchett OBE
- Matt Ridley
- Jon Ronson
- Paul Rose
- Professor Steven Rose
- Michael Rubenstein
- Salman Rushdie
- Sir David Smith FRS FRSE
- Dr Harry Stopes-ROe
- Professor Sir Kenneth Stuart FRCP
- Sir John Sulston FRS
- Professor Raymond Tallis
- Laurie Taylor
- Sir Keith Thomas BA
- Baron Bilston of Bilston
- Professor Sir David Weatherall FRS
- Baroness Whitaker
- Zoe Williams
- Jane Wynne Willson
- Professor Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS
[edit] NSS Supporters
- Professor Peter Atkins
- Iain Banks
- Lorraine Barrett AM
- Edward Bond
- Michael Cashman MP
- Colin Challen MP
- Nick Cohen
- Lord Desai
- Angela Eagle MP
- Ian Gibson MP
- Johann Hari
- Patrick Harvie MSP
- Dr Evan Harris MP
- Paul Holmes MP
- Professor Ted Honderich
- Mary Honeyball MP
- Graham Linehan
- Taslima Nasrin
- Lord Raglan
- Martin Rowson
- Joan Ruddock MP
- Joan Smith
[edit] Supporters of both the NSS and the BHA
- Graham Allen MP
- Baroness Flather
- Rt Hon Michael Foot
- Kelvin Hopkins MP
- Sir Ludovic Kennedy
- Bob Marshall-Andrews QC MP
- Baroness Massey of Darwen
- Lord McIntosh of Haringay
- Jonathan Meades
- Sir Jonathan Miller CBE
- Baron O'Neill of Clackmannan
- Lord Peston
- Claire Rayner OBE
- Lord Dick Taverne QC
- Baroness Turner of Camden
- Professor Lord Wedderburn of Charlton QC FBA
[edit] People who should be contacted specifically with a different letter, inviting them to speak, or just because they're super-awesome
-
Professor Richard Dawkins - Ricky Gervais (Oh my god do not invite him as a speaker to launch or I will just die - Chloe)
-
Professor A.C. Grayling - Christopher Hitchens
- Stewart Lee
- Maryam Namazie
- Philip Pullman
- Dr. David Starkey
-
Polly Toynbee - Gore Vidal (for anyone brave enough [2])
[edit] Other People
- Lord Joffe
- George Osborne
- David Miliband
- Lord Goodhart
- Lord Macdonald of Tradeston
- Baroness Murphy (agnostic)
