Following is a sample donation request letter that could be sent from a charitable group or other organization to their community and neighboring communities unaffected by wild fires. Feel free to copy and modify it for your fundraising needs. For any other use, please contact us. (More fundraising letters and templates…)
Dear _____,
Wild fires have devastated hundreds of Our Town’s local structures, burned tens of thousands of acres of forest and forced hundreds to evacuate their homes. While your house might have been spared, many families have been left homeless or forced to leave the area as refugees. The total cost to the community, including firefighter fees to call in outside support and new funding needed to rebuild our schools and community centers is in the tens of millions.
Surely you have heard the response on the national news of Americans and even our international community donating to help. Those funds, however, are channeled through large charity conglomerations that can take weeks and sometimes months to get to the places and people that need it most.
Our Organization is a local 501(c)(3) charity with a 15 year track record of emergency support that is directing our focus on the fire crisis. A donation to us has an immediate and substantial impact on OurTown, going directly to the vetted families and referred community members that need help the quickest. What is more, as we are nearly entirely volunteer operated, more than 95% of your gift goes entirely to relief efforts.
With your help, OurOrganization can provide direct services to feed and shelter families who have lost everything, to support seniors and our other vulnerable community members with relocation and application for FEMA or other federal assistance, and to organize donation services for furniture, clothes, and other necessities. We will also support rebuilding efforts of key community structures that were lost in the fire, to get OurTown up and running as quickly as possible.
A little bit can go a very long way to help our community. For examples, your tax-deductible gift of:
- $50 will support an entire family of 4 with emergency necessity kits (toothbrushes/paste, clothes, shoes and blankets).
- $100 will feed a family or 4 refugees at our crisis shelter center for one week.
- $250 will help rebuild the local school cafeteria that was destroyed in the blaze.
In partnership with OurTown’s fire department, who desperately needs funds to increase our fire brigade and support families of fallen first responders, 10 percent of your gift will go directly toward their upgrade fund!
What is more, if we receive your gift by the end of the month, X Community Foundation will match it 2:1, tripling the impact of your support.
Hence we are urging you to give as generously as you can, to help us restore OurTown as quickly as possible, and also to ensure that when the next fire comes, we will be ready.
Very Best,
Director
OurOrganization
PS: If your donation is received online or in the mail by the end of the month, the local fire department will send you a special commemorative gift!
——-
>> If you are an organization working towards prevention of future wildfires, consider adding something like the following:
[And the truth is that all of us are to blame on some level. Recent reports show that California has 129 million dead trees spread over 8.9 million acres. Climate change is causing increased die off from higher temperatures and extended drought. Those facts coupled with the reality that more and more people are moving to risky fire prone areas – out of population necessity and rising housing costs – leads to conditions for human catastrophe.
The good news is that we can all be part of the solution by supporting our neighbors in need and helping our community rebuild and increase its resiliency to future fire.]
>> More sample fundraising letters here
>> Sample Fundraising Letter – Community Fund For People In Need
>> Sample Donation Request Letter – Storm Victims
>> Fundraising Donation Request Letters – A Writing Guide
>> Sample Donation Request Letter To A Company