The Money Move · Issue #018 · Thursday, July 30
Hey —
John here.
Was sitting at the kitchen table Sunday night. We run a small nonprofit that feeds thousands of families every year — right now we're mid-fundraiser. My wife looked up: "we still need to write the proposal letter for the event tonight." I opened Claude. We had a draft in minutes. She read the last paragraph and said "that's it."
Today's play is what every PTA president, church volunteer, and small nonprofit board member you know is staring at right now — a blank page and a fundraising deadline. Two-minute read.
Reply "WIN" if you tried a Money Move play this week. I read every one.
Here's what's happening in every nonprofit's group chat right now. Fall fundraising season starts in August. Year-end giving appeals. Sponsorship packets for spring events. Grant applications for next-year funding. Every nonprofit board member, PTA president, and booster club treasurer is staring at three unwritten letters and one deadline.
Most of them will do what they always do:
Copy last year's letter and change the date
Ask a "volunteer with writing skills" to help (waits three weeks)
Hire a grant writer for fifteen hundred to three thousand
Push the deadline and hope
Every one of those fails them because nonprofit volunteers are the most time-starved people in America, and their fundraising letters are the difference between hitting the annual budget and coming up short.
The better play: you. With Claude. In one weekend.
The math up front: four ninety-seven per campaign package. Three nonprofits in your network before September. Could be fourteen ninety-one by Labor Day. Every new campaign they come back for; Giving Tuesday, holiday letters, spring event pitch is another four ninety-seven. One client is easily two thousand a year.
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If you've ever wanted to help without writing a check, this is the play. If you're building income insurance, this is the play. Same weekend. Same prompts.
The pitch script (send to any nonprofit board member, PTA president, church volunteer, coach, or booster club treasurer you know):
"Quick heads up — I've been using AI to write fundraising letters for a nonprofit I help run, and it's been the difference between finishing on time and missing deadlines. If yours needs help this fall, I can put together a full campaign package — appeal letter, three follow-ups, one sponsorship pitch — for four ninety-seven, delivered in seven days. Want to see a sample first?"
Twenty messages. Two closes. That's the math. Send twenty.
The 3 prompts (each one ends with "Every sentence must earn its place." That single line is what stops Claude from producing generic AI copy. Steal it for anything you write with Claude):
1. INTAKE (send to the buyer to fill out)
Interview me about my nonprofit as a professional fundraising copywriter. Ask 8 short questions to surface: what we do in one sentence, the specific number we've helped (families served, kids sponsored, animals rescued), our biggest recent win, the one thing that would surprise a donor about us, what we're raising money for this fall, the exact dollar goal, one story of a real person we've helped (first name only), and the tone we want to strike (urgent / warm / matter-of-fact). Under 5 minutes to answer. Every sentence must earn its place.
2. LETTER WRITER (paste the 8 answers)
Write a 400-word fundraising appeal letter for [NONPROFIT] targeting past donors and warm prospects. Line 1 = a single specific moment or detail that puts the reader in the room (not a stat). Paragraphs 2-3 = the mission and the specific goal, told through one real person we've helped. Paragraph 4 = why THIS gift matters right now (specific fall or holiday timing). Paragraph 5 = the ask, with three suggested gift levels (fifty, one fifty, five hundred), each explaining exactly what that dollar amount does. Close with one sentence signed by the executive director. Voice: warm friend making a specific ask, not a corporate solicitation. No jargon. Every sentence must earn its place.
3. FOLLOW-UP TRIO (delivered with the campaign package)
Write three follow-up messages the nonprofit sends after the appeal letter: (1) A 100-word thank you email to people who gave, mentioning the specific impact of their gift; (2) A 100-word gentle reminder email 10 days later to people who opened but didn't give; (3) A 150-word final push email 3 days before the deadline, with a soft "we're this close to goal" line. Tone across all three: gracious, specific, no guilt. Each message ready to schedule with zero edits. Every sentence must earn its place.
5 steps:
Tonight: Open your contacts. Find 20 people who serve on a nonprofit board, run a PTA, coach a youth league, or volunteer with a church, food bank, or shelter. Save the list.
Friday night: Pick ONE. Run Intake on their nonprofit as if you were the director (use their website to answer). Then run Letter Writer. Save the draft. That's your free sample.
Saturday morning: Message that person first with the letter sample. Then send the same pitch (with your fresh sample) to the other 19.
Sunday: Reply to every response same day. First "yes" = you get their real intake answers. First close by Wednesday.
Following weekend: Deliver the full campaign package. Invoice four ninety-seven. Repeat with two more nonprofits before September.
Where else to find nonprofits: Facebook groups for charities in your city, your kid's school PTA directory, church bulletins, the "Nonprofit Professionals" groups on LinkedIn, and the mom on your street who's on the animal rescue board. Every zip code has 20 under-resourced nonprofits looking for exactly this help.
That's the play.
"$497 lives in every unwritten letter."
Write the letter.
— John
The Money Move
@hustlepreneur.ig · theweeklymoneymove.com
See you next Thursday.
