OK, one more post about support letters for right now. I was thinking that it would be kind of interesting to see what kind of response I have personally gotten over the years regarding support letters. So I dug through some old files. And here's what I got:The numbers below correlate to this breakdown:
year
# of letters sent
# of people responded
% of responded/sent
amount needed
amount raised
% of raised/needed
[Note that 1992 and 1993 are missing some data.]
1992: - 28 - 9 - 32% - ? - ? - ?
1993: - 19 - ? - ? - $1100 - ? - ?
2000: - 20 - 8 - 40% - $350 - $575 - 165%
2002: - 16 - 8 - 50% - $425 - $675 - 158%
2004: - 23 - 9 - 40% - $300 - $630 - 210%
2005: - 34 - 18 - 52% - $2000 - $1580 - 80%
Kind of interesting huh? Let's make some assumptions from the data:
1 - That's a lot of letters.
2 - Best case, only half of the people actually respond.
3 - Most of the time, we raise more support than needed.
4 - It would be interesting to compare this with trends for actual mission agencies. We also should take into consideration that this is specific for summer/short term trips.
Also pulled out of the detailed files, an example of such clear and concise writing from a support letter for the 1993 Dominican Republic team, and I quote,
"Spanish is the main language there and I know almost next to nothing."But trust me, man who knows next to nothing [but not nothing, mind you,] to be in charge of your kids for a few weeks.
Photo: My DR team in Santo Domingo, July 1993.
Technorati tags:: student+missions, mission+support+letters
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