Fundraising Letters That Work for Charity Riders

Charity riders raise money the way they train: in small, repeatable efforts that add up over a season. A fundraising letter is one of those efforts. It is a written appeal to friends, family, neighbours and local businesses, and it does the work a conversation cannot always do, explaining why you ride, where the money goes, and how someone can give. Done well, it brings in first donations, recurring gifts, and a clearer understanding of the cause. Done badly, it reads like a form letter and gets set aside.

The structure below comes from the published guidance in GoFundMe's donor communication writing guides, adapted for the particular job a charity cyclist faces: asking people you know to back miles they will never ride themselves. The aim is a letter or email that sounds like you, states the need plainly, and makes giving easy.

Why riders wrote letters at all

A charity ride sets a minimum each participant must raise before the event. That minimum is not arbitrary: it reflects what it costs to put a rider on the road and what the beneficiary services need. If you are new to the mechanics, our explainer on reaching the fundraising minimum walks through how the thresholds work. The short version is that the minimum is the floor, not the goal. Letters are how most riders clear it and then keep going, because a written ask reaches people a training ride never will: the colleague who used to ride, the relative who wants to help but does not know how, the local shop that supports causes in its own neighbourhood.

Start with the reader, not the ride

The published guidance is blunt about this: write as if you are talking to a friend. Use personal pronouns, "I," "you," "they," and let the reader feel something before you ask for anything. People give because they want to feel good about their giving. That means the first paragraph is about the person reading it and the reason the cause matters, not about your training schedule. Save the mileage totals for later. If a letter opens with the cause and closes with a clear way to give, the middle has room for your own story.

What belongs in the first three paragraphs?

A working letter front-loads four things. First, why you are fundraising, in one or two sentences, with a line about your own history with the cause. Second, what the money will do. Third, exactly what you are asking for, whether a one-time gift, a monthly amount, or a share of the link. Fourth, the deadline, if there is one, because urgency helps donors decide. The guidance notes that if funds are needed by a specific date, saying so lets donors understand how urgent the cause is. If there is no hard date, do not invent one. A ride date is a natural deadline, and it is a true one.

Make the gift the easiest thing on the page

Every letter should point people to where they can donate, with no confusion about how. Include the fundraiser link and explain any other way to give, such as a cheque or a cash gift at a team event. Because online giving is the fastest route, the platform you choose should be easy to use, secure, and well regarded. Once the link is in, say what it does: "click the link below" is enough. Do not bury it in a paragraph of explanation. The guidance also suggests mentioning that more photos and videos live on the fundraiser page, which gives people a reason to click through and see the cause rather than read about it.

Should you include a photograph?

Yes, if you have one that shows the work rather than the pose. A picture, the guidance says, lets people visualise how their support will be used. For a rider, that might be a training photo on a country road, a shot of the team at a rest stop, or an image connected to the services the ride supports. A single honest photo outperforms a paragraph of description. If you are sending by post, the guidance suggests pairing the letter with curated photos or small gifts, the way some nonprofits enclose address labels to make a request stand out. Direct mail is slower, so it suits riders with a longer runway before their event.

How does the letter change for family, nonprofits and businesses?

The core structure holds, but the register shifts with the reader. With family and friends you can be more vulnerable and share details you would keep back from a business. With a nonprofit or a large organisation, you are writing to a body that already understands charitable giving, so the letter can be more formal and can lean on how the funds create impact. With a local business, the case is often local: the guidance suggests explaining how your cause ties into the community the business serves, and reporting what you have already raised, because a business wants to see momentum. Never use all-capitals or exclamation marks in a subject line. Keep it short.

Where does the team fit?

Most riders do not write alone. Team members share the ask, splitting a list of contacts, agreeing on one story, and passing the same link around so donors see a familiar page. If your team has a page for registration and team giving, point people to it in the letter or in a follow-up, and let stronger writers draft the template the rest of the team adapts. This is also where accuracy matters most: when several people send the same letter, a wrong name or a broken link multiplies. Check spelling and grammar before anything goes out, and verify that every donor's name, every date and every contact detail is correct.

What do the sample letters actually look like?

The published templates follow one shape. A short subject line. A greeting with the reader's name. One or two sentences of personal history with the cause. A plain ask: "Would you be able to contribute to my fundraiser? A donation of any amount would truly help me reach my goal." The link. A request to share, because the more people who hear about the cause, the faster the goal arrives. A sign-off and contact details. The version for businesses adds the local argument and a line about what has been raised so far. The version for nonprofits opens with the organisation's mission and names a few specific ways the funds will make an impact. Notice what none of them do: they do not apologise for asking, and they do not leave the reader to guess what to do next.

What about email, social media and follow-up?

The guidance treats email and social posts as delivery routes for the same content, not separate genres. On social media the tone can loosen, since posts are more informal, but the ask and the link stay. Email allows a subject line and a signature block with your contact details. The guidance also notes that updates are a place to remind people of your deadline and to report progress. One letter is rarely the whole campaign: a first email, a mid-campaign update and a thank-you note are the standard sequence. A well written thank-you, the guidance says, is a key part of a good fundraising strategy, not an afterthought.

What happens to the money after the ride?

Riders owe donors an honest account of where the funds land. Trinity Miles keeps a record of the Organisations and What the Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS supported between 2001 and 2013, and the services those donations funded are still active in Dallas and Fort Worth. If you want templates to adapt, and a place to compare structure before you write your own, the site's own Learning Centre Letters Packing pages collect that kind of reference. Writing the letter is the first half of the promise. The second half is telling the people who gave what their money did.

About GoFundMe GoFundMe is a crowdfunding platform where people and organisations raise money for personal, charitable and medical causes. Its blog publishes a guide to writing fundraising letters, covering structure, tone, images, urgency and calls to action. The guide also offers sample donation request letters for family and friends, for nonprofits, and for local businesses, plus tips on sharing a fundraiser online.

The Trinity Miles editorial team, [email protected]