9.03: I just wrote a couple of appeals for a big hospital. This time I took notes. Here's how to get a better letter.

Your next direct mail appeal: Will it burst into song?

Writing direct mail is like writing a song. You tell your story. You set a certain mood. You hit emotional notes. You have a big finish.

And when the reader likes your song -- or, better, adores your song -- a gift will follow. Here are my top tips and hints for creating direct mail that sings and wins fans.

1. Be not afraid. People love to help out by donating money. Neuroscience has proved it: philanthropy fires up a pleasure center in the human brain, as MRIs clearly show. Be joyful about asking for money. Ask early. Ask often. Ask boldly.

2. These things are WAY simpler than you think. Your biggest problem in writing effective direct mail is getting out of the way of a simple story. Famed direct mail writer, Jerry Huntsinger, once said that an effective fundraising letter needed just three things: (1) adequate emotion, (2) adequate rationale, and (3) adequate mechanics. In other words: (1) people who need help, donors who can give help; (2) proof that your organization does good work; and (3) a way to give easily.

3. Strap on your water wings. Your mentors are your water wings. They will keep you afloat in the deep end of the pool, when you're not sure how to start (or finish). I had two favorite books open flat all the time I wrote my hospital letters: Mal Warwick's How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters; and Alan Sharpe's Breakthrough Fundraising Letters. Mal explains how to properly write a marketing concept, a necessary prelude to good direct mail. Alan helps jump-start my creative engines with brief chapters like "Why your envelope is more important than your letter." Mal is my strategy guy. Alan is my tactics guy.

4. Be brazenly, incessantly, "donor centric." Remember to trumpet the donor as a valued team member, someone who is essential for achieving the mission. A good letter is not about how great YOU are. It's about how GREAT the donor is ... for being part of your tribe, your team, your merry band of troublemakers "united against cancer" or whatever you're united for or against. For example, from my hospital letters: "But there's a member of the team you won't see in that video, an invisible member just as important as the doctors and nurses and technicians ... and that important team member is you." "There's more to superb health care than gee-whiz technology and our highly trained professional staff. [Hospital name] is where it is today -- and where it will be tomorrow -- because of strong philanthropic support from the community, from generous benefactors like you."

5. Don't start writing. Start writing notes. Mal Warwick 101: Know what you are going to write about before you start writing a letter. Write little questions to yourself (and answer them). Here's a question I wrote on my yellow pad: "What amazing little tale am I telling the reader 1st?" And here's my response to that question, the opening paragraph from the hospital's donor renewal letter: "First you see a rescue helicopter muscle in for a landing." Remember, you have no more than 3 seconds to hook the reader's interest. Be fast. Be dramatic.

6. Find story material. If you don't have a real-life story handy, you don't have a letter. I was lucky with the hospital. I had two great sources of story material I could swipe from, without interviewing anyone else: (1) brief comments from dozens of grateful patients thanking their doctors and nurses; and (2) an online documentary video that tracked the treatment of five different patients. If you think your letter will successfully raise money by reciting a few statistics, think again. Statistics have almost zero emotional content (I can think of a few exceptions). Anecdotes -- little stories I can see in my head and hence empathize with -- are required to move people to give.

7. Convince yourself first. I start all my letters with the salutation, "Dear Tom." And whatever comes after that better be pretty convincing ... to me. After all, if I'm not buying it -- with actual head nods and tears creeping down my cheeks -- then why would anyone else?

Takeaway: The best fundraising letters keep it simple and keep it focused. They tell a fast, vivid, real-life story. They promise results and offer proof that those results will happen. They give donors a ton of credit for making the results possible. And they ask for the gift repeatedly. They are a pleasurable, empowering, spirit-renewing experience for the donor. They sing.