A personalized pledge letter sent to friends, family and acquaintances is an excellent way to launch your pledge campaign. Your letter should be compelling, concise, and engaging.

Expand Your Mailing List
Start your list by writing down every single person you know. Include old neighbors, former associates, family friends, classmates, former classmates, members of clubs, fraternities, sororities, leagues, committees, organizations, alumni groups, etc. It will be easy to make excuses for someone as to why they won’t contribute. If you find yourself doing that, step back and allow that person to make their own decision. You’ll be surprised who will send in pledges. AIDS has touched all of us.

Be Personal
Let your sponsor know how much you must raise (or your higher personal goal) in order to ride. Share not only the story of the ride but also your personal story. Why are you doing this ride? Talk about the commitment of time and energy that you’re putting into preparing for it.

Describe the ride. You can paraphrase from the materials in this packet or from the web site www.rideforaids.org. Include impressive figures-how far you’ll be riding, how many will join you, and the projected money the ride will generate for AIDS services. Include significant statistics on the AIDS epidemic, too. Tell sponsors where their contributions are going, and how the money will be used.

Mail Your Letter
Your first letter should go out as soon as possible. If you need help, there’s a sample fundraising letter that you can download (see right).

After mailing your first letter you can sit back and watch the pledges roll in, and your commitment should be met within two weeks, right? Well… not exactly. This can be an anxiety- producing realization for many riders. People may not respond immediately to your letter. Realize that it’s not about you, it’s about human nature. So give them a lot of opportunities.

Make Follow-Up Phone Calls
After you’ve mailed your letters, it’s important to make follow-up phone calls to your potential donors. It lets them know you’re serious about what you’re doing. They’ll respect the courage it took for you to call and it will dramatically improve your fundraising progress and success. In other words, you’ll raise a lot more money this way.

Progress Letters
Send your potential sponsors several update letters. Let them know how things are going by sending another two or three letters, spaced one or two months apart. Did your first 50- mile ride? Include that in a follow-up letter. Lost 10 pounds? Include that. Raised $600 so far? Include that. Engage your potential donors in your preparation process. And keep giving them opportunities to join. In fact, you can send update letters to your confirmed sponsors too. They’ll be excited by your progress and feel like they’re a part of something incredible-they may even decide to give even more as they see your commitment grow stronger. Everyone, in fact, will see just how serious you are about the ride. And then they’ll get serious.