Yours for the Asking: An Indispensable Guide to Fundraising and Management

by Reynold Levy

A piece of direct mail should be a call to action. Stimulating positive behavior is what a successful campaign is all about. At the IRC, we enjoyed considerable success by associating well-known, credible, reliable personalities with our ask. One example is Andy Grove, the former CEO and cofounder of Intel, a refugee who escaped from Budapest to freedom in Vienna during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Because Andy is so widely admired in business circles and because he had just been named the Time Magazine Person of the Year for 1998, we decided to ask him to sign an appeal letter. It began in this arresting way. Dear Friend: My name is Andy Grove. I am a refugee. By telling succinctly and powerfully how the IRC came to his rescue and about how many hundreds of thousands of others it could assist with the reader’s help, Andy’s letter broke all records in terms of favorable replies. The IRC was fortunate as well to win Paul Newman’s approval to have mailings go out over his signature. Here the personal connection with the organization was less direct and compelling. But Newman’s high name recognition and his attractiveness as a generous donor to many causes, including the IRC, proved to be very successful.