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What would happen if the author of The Da Vinci Code wrote your next direct mail fundraising appeal letter?

Would your letter be boring? Predictable? Forgettable?

I'll give the answer in a minute.

Your donors will no longer respond to lacklustre appeal letters. Today's busy, distracted donors won't donate to unexciting causes.

Blame it on Survivor and American Idol. Blame it on cell phones, iPods, Blackberries, digital TV, satellite radio, junk mail, spam and telemarketers. Blame it on the thousands of other charities competing for your donor's loyalty. But don't blame your donor.
Your donor, like everyone else, will only read fundraising letters that are novel. Different. Original.

Appeal letters today must grab attention and compel donors to read on right to the end, and then donate.

The most effective way to hook readers and keep them hooked is to tell original, real-life stories that make your fundraising letters more interesting, more dramatic, more persuasive.

That doesn't mean your donation request letters should be as long as a novel. Just that they should be as interesting as a novel to read. You need to use the novelist's creative writing techniques to make your appeal letters more, well, appealing.

Here are two of them of those techniques.

1. Enter shooting. Design your carrier envelope so that it grabs attention and simply demands to be opened. Then start your letter with a fascinating story, intriguing fact, provocative quote or other creative writing device that compels your donor to start reading*and keep reading.

2. Leave them hanging. Create suspense. Add intrigue. Don't tell your whole story in your first paragraph, but drop hints here and there in your letter that more excitement awaits the reader. End each paragraph half-finished so that your donor has to continue reading to satisfy her curiosity. Here's why.

People who have read The Da Vinci Code say they couldn't put it down. Many people read it in one sitting. You need to make your fundraising letters just as irresistible.

* 2006 Sharpe Copy Inc.