Peer to Peer
Fundraising Toolkit

Always imagine someone standing in a line at the grocery store and flipping through lots of email on his or her phone. What makes your message stand out?

• Subject Line: Aim for 25 characters, including spaces, so your subject line is visible across devices (mobile, tablet, PC) and email clients (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.).
• Connect: Call people by name, remind them of your past relationship, and/or say why you’re emailing.
• Ask: Be concrete, name your goal and remember to include a link to your fundraising page.
• Detail: Explain your motivation or share a story from stjude.org.

Assume that the reader won’t get all the way to the bottom of your email. Be brief, catch his or her attention early, and make sure your email gets to the point.

Sharing the St. Jude mission can be shorter or longer, depending on your audience. Try including one of the facts below or check out stjude.org to find one that inspires you even more.

• Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about his helping their child live. See what that means to St. Jude patients and their families.
• St. Jude has increased the survival rates for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) from 4 percent before opening in 1962 to 94 percent today, giving hope to St. Jude patients like Maria Isabella.
• St. Jude is where doctors often send their toughest cases, because St. Jude has the world's best survival rates for some of the most aggressive forms of childhood cancers. Read how St. Jude is helping patient Nikalis.
• St. Jude has the world’s first pediatric proton therapy center, helping to heal patients like Zahaan.
• St. Jude treats about 8,500 children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases each year, including patient Chandler, helping them achieve their dreams.
• St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. Our lifesaving research helps kids like St. Jude patient Aamir.
• As the World Health Organization's first Collaborating Centre for Childhood Cancer, St. Jude is collaborating with the WHO on a new global childhood cancer effort to cure at least 60 percent of children with six of the most common kinds of cancer worldwide by 2030. Learn how.

• Bold key words, phrases or short sentences.
• Use shorter paragraphs to make reading on a phone easier.
• Wordiness is great for padding essays, not emails. Be concise with your word choice; no need to utilize when you can use.
• Go easy on the exclamation points. If everything’s an exclamation, then nothing is.
• Bulleted information is helpful! 

Subject Line:  Help me support the kids of St. Jude

Dear Mr. Smith,

You taught me in Boy Scouts that I should serve others. I’ve started a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to help children fighting cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

My goal is to raise $1,000 by May 31. Please visit my fundraising page to donate and to learn more: [LINK]

The mission of St. Jude is so meaningful to me. Thanks to generous donors like you, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.

Sincerely,
Billy Jones