Section 4. Writing Letters to Potential Participants

• What is writing to potential participants?

• Why should you write to a potential participant?

• When should you write to a potential participant?

• How should you write to a potential participant?

• How do you get the reader's attention?

• Should you use email or a printed letter?

What is writing to potential participants?

Personal communication can be valuable when you're inviting someone to become involved in your group or organization, but no single form of contact is best for every situation. A meeting, phone or video call, printed letter, email, or other written message may work well depending on the relationship, the request, accessibility, timing, and the person's communication preferences.

Written communication definitely has its place. A thoughtful letter or email gives you time to organize what you want to say, provides the recipient with information they can review when convenient, and can be saved or shared for later reference. Written outreach can also help you reach more people than would be practical through individual meetings alone.

So suppose you have decided to write to a potential participant. This section will show you how to make your message clear, respectful, and useful.

A message to a potential participant is a written communication inviting someone to consider becoming involved with your group, organization, coalition, project, or activity. It may range from a personalized printed letter to an email or another appropriate written format. The goal is to explain the opportunity, why you believe it may be relevant to the person, what participation could involve, and how they can respond if they're interested.

Why should you write to a potential participant?

As with other methods of contacting potential participants, you may write in order:

• To invite new members or participants to become involved in your group or organization
• To raise awareness of your group and the issues that are important to it
• To ask for specific assistance with a program, project, event, or activity
• To give potential participants a written overview of your organization that explains its purpose, identifies areas of shared interest, and describes possible ways to become involved

When should you write to a potential participant?

Written outreach can be useful anytime you're trying to increase participation, strengthen community relationships, raise awareness, or invite people to contribute to specific work. It may be especially useful:

• When you don't yet know the potential participant well and want to introduce yourself and your organization without putting the person on the spot
• When schedules make a phone, video, or face-to-face conversation difficult
• When you want to provide information that the person may want to review carefully or keep for later. You can also link to or include a fact sheet, brochure, webpage, or other resource when more detail is useful.

Written communication can also work well together with a personal conversation. You might write:

• When you want to request a meeting and believe some background information will help the person decide whether to meet
• When you want to follow up after a meeting with a thank-you, additional information, a summary of what was discussed, or confirmation of next steps

How should you write to a potential participant?

Before you begin, two important preliminary steps:

• You should have an appropriate list of potential participants and understand why each person or organization may have a meaningful connection to your work
• You should set aside enough time to write, review, and personalize the message appropriately

There are different kinds of writing situations:

• Sometimes you will be writing to a friend. Sometimes it will be to a colleague or acquaintance. Sometimes you will be writing to someone you have never met.
• In some cases, the written message may be your main contact with the person. In others, it will be connected to a meeting or conversation and may be sent before or afterward.

Depending on the situation, the content, style, length, and tone of your message will vary. Naturally, you may write differently to a close colleague than to a public official or organizational leader whom you have never met.

But all of these situations have one important factor in common: you should give the recipient enough clear and accurate information to decide whether the opportunity is relevant to them and whether they want to become involved. Your message may be persuasive, but it should not pressure the person or assume that they owe your organization their participation.

Most of us have written messages asking someone to consider doing something. You can make those messages more effective by following some simple guidelines.

How do you get the reader's attention?

People receive many messages and may only have limited time to decide what deserves their attention. Your goal isn't simply to "grab" attention. It is to make it immediately clear who is contacting the person, why you're writing, and why the message may be relevant to them.

Design

Keep the design clear, professional, and easy to read. For a printed letter, appropriate organizational letterhead or a recognizable logo can help identify the sender. For email, use a clear sender name and subject line. In either format, use readable type, reasonable spacing, strong contrast, and a simple layout. Avoid unnecessary decoration that competes with the message itself.

Accessibility matters as well. Use readable text sizes, plain formatting, meaningful link text, and sufficient contrast. If the recipient has communicated a preferred language, format, or accommodation, use it when possible.

Content

Your opening matters. Readers should quickly understand why you are contacting them and why you believe the opportunity may be relevant. You don't need an exaggerated or dramatic opening; a direct and specific first sentence is often stronger.

Personalize the message.

• If a mutual contact suggested that you reach out, and that person is comfortable being named, mention the connection accurately. For example, "Jordan Lee suggested I contact you because of your work with neighborhood youth programs."
• Use the person's correct name, title, and preferred form of address when you know them. Avoid generic greetings when you have accurate information available.
• Identify yourself clearly. For a printed letter, sign your name. For email, include an appropriate organizational signature with useful contact information.
• When appropriate, add a short personalized sentence explaining why you thought of this particular person or organization. Make sure the reason is genuine rather than adding artificial personalization simply to make a mass message appear individual.
• Use a delivery method appropriate to the recipient and the relationship. A personally addressed printed letter may be useful in some situations, while email may be faster and more convenient in others.

The goal is to communicate that you have a real reason for contacting this person, not simply that their name happened to appear on a list.

Give the reason you are writing right at the beginning.

Get to the point. Tell the reader who you are, why you're reaching out, and what you're inviting them to consider. Readers shouldn't have to work through several paragraphs before understanding the purpose of the message.

Your reason might be to invite someone to attend a meeting, participate in a project, consider joining a coalition, provide expertise, represent an organization when authorized to do so, volunteer, or support the effort in another way. State the purpose clearly near the beginning.

Give your reader relevant reasons to consider participating.

Explain why you believe the opportunity may matter to the recipient. Don't assume you know exactly what motivates them. Instead, connect the invitation to information you actually have about their work, interests, experiences, organization, or community relationships.

Depending on the situation, relevant reasons might include:

• The opportunity to work on an issue that the person or organization has already identified as important
• The opportunity to contribute knowledge, skills, lived experience, or other resources to work that may benefit the community
• The opportunity to build relationships with other people or organizations working on related issues
• The opportunity to learn about partnerships, resources, or funding possibilities relevant to the organization's work
• The opportunity to learn about developments, resources, or perspectives relevant to the person's field
• The opportunity to stay informed about issues and activities in the community
• The opportunity to meet and collaborate with other community members
• The opportunity to build relevant skills, experience, or professional relationships when those are genuinely part of the role
• The opportunity to contribute meaningfully to a cause or community effort that matters to them
• The opportunity to participate in a welcoming group and, when appropriate, enjoy the social side of working with others

Which of these reasons matter will vary from person to person. Don't list every possible benefit. Focus on the few that actually relate to the recipient and to the opportunity you're offering.

In your message, you can include a few sentences about your organization and the issue it is addressing. Avoid overwhelming the reader with background information. If more detail is necessary, link to or include a webpage, fact sheet, brochure, report, or other resource that the person can review separately.

Make a request.

What are you asking the recipient to consider doing? Let them know clearly. Is it to attend a meeting? Participate in a specific project? Join a coalition? Volunteer for an activity? Meet with you to discuss the issue? Support the organization in another way?

Be thoughtful about what you are requesting. A useful request is usually:

• Clear. The recipient understands what you're inviting them to consider.
• Specific. The message describes the activity, role, or next step rather than simply asking the person to "get involved."
• Defined. When possible, explain the expected time commitment, responsibilities, duration, and other important expectations.
• Timely. Give the person a reasonable timeframe for responding and clearly identify any genuine deadline.
• Realistic and accessible. Consider the time, transportation, cost, scheduling, language, technology, disability access, child care, or other factors that may affect whether the person can participate. Explain available support or accommodations when appropriate.

Examples:

Instead of: "Become a member of our organization."

Try: "You're invited to our community meeting next Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. to learn about the project and decide whether you'd like to become involved."

Instead of: "Help us in our campaign."

Try: "We're looking for volunteers who can help with community outreach during the week before Election Day. If you're interested, we can send you the available roles and time commitments."

Instead of: "Distribute flyers around town."

Try: "If you'd like to help with outreach, we're looking for volunteers who can distribute flyers in their neighborhood or at approved community locations. You can choose an area and amount that works for you."

Be clear about how the recipient can respond.

What is the next step? Make it easy to understand and complete.

• If you're asking someone to complete a form, provide the form or a clear link to it and explain what information is required.
• If you're inviting someone to a meeting, make the date, time, location or online-access information, accessibility information, and purpose easy to find.
• If there's a genuine deadline, state the day and date clearly.
• Include appropriate organizational contact information, such as an email address, phone number, website, registration link, or the name of the person who can answer questions.

Express your appreciation.

Thank the recipient for taking the time to consider the invitation. Don't assume that they will agree to participate or thank them in advance for support they haven't promised. A simple, sincere expression of appreciation is enough.

People generally appreciate having their time, experience, and contributions recognized. If they do become involved, continue that appreciation after they join rather than treating the thank-you as merely a recruitment technique.

Proofread your message.

Spelling, grammatical, factual, or formatting errors can make your message harder to understand and may reduce confidence in your organization. Check names, titles, dates, meeting information, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, links, and any factual claims. When possible, have another person review important outreach before you send it.

Review it, then send it through the appropriate channel.

These guidelines don't have to appear in an exact order, and every message doesn't need every element. Your communication should fit the person, relationship, and request. The same general principles -- clarity, respect, relevance, honesty, and a clear next step -- can also strengthen face-to-face, phone, and video conversations.

But for now, let's see how these writing principles might work in practice by showing several examples. See Examples.

Should you use email or a printed letter?

Both can be useful. Choose the format that fits the recipient, the purpose, and the circumstances rather than assuming one is always better.

Email may be useful because:

• It can be delivered quickly and can make it easy for the recipient to respond when convenient.
• It generally costs little to send and can include links to webpages, registration forms, calendars, reports, or other resources.
• It can be searched, saved, forwarded, and revisited later.

Email also has limitations:

• Some formal invitations or relationships may be better served by a printed letter or by combining a formal letter with email.
• Some people don't use email regularly or may prefer another communication channel.
• People receive large amounts of email, so messages can be overlooked, filtered, or deleted. A clear sender name and subject line can help the recipient understand what the message is about.

A printed letter may be appropriate when a formal invitation is important, when the recipient prefers physical mail, when the material needs to be retained or presented in a formal setting, or when digital access is limited. Email may be more appropriate when speed, links, scheduling, or easy replies matter.

You can also combine methods. For example, you might email a formal letter as an attachment, mail an invitation and later send a brief email reminder, or send an email and offer a phone or video conversation for anyone who wants to discuss the opportunity.

Whatever format you choose, make sure your communication is relevant, accessible, respectful of the recipient's preferences and privacy, and easy to respond to. The goal isn't simply to make your message "stand out." It's to give the recipient a clear and genuine invitation to decide whether and how they want to participate.