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Communicating with Donors:
Building Relationships
 Find reasons to let contributors hear from you regularly during the term of your RIF program—at times when you’re not asking for money.
- Send clippings of any publicity you receive.
- Videotape a book distribution to use for promotion. Make sure your contributors have an opportunity to see it. Invite them to be interviewed on camera so that their personal endorsements are part of your video presentation. (Be sure to get written permission from parents before you record or photograph kids for publications that will be used publicly.)
- Present large contributors with posters signed by all the children your program serves.
- If your program has a newsletter or calendar of events, make sure your contributors get it. If your program doesn't produce this sort of publication, at least be sure to drop them a line occasionally and let them know how the program is doing. (When you can, invite your funders to a distribution so that they can see the impact you are having firsthand.)
- Following a distribution, encourage the children to write to sponsors about the books they chose.
- Take photos during distributions and other events. Send them along with any other correspondence, or put together a souvenir album to present to a large contributor.
- Interview the children, their parents, and teachers to elicit positive comments about the impact RIF has had on reading for pleasure, reading at home, and improvement in the children's reading habits and skills. Pass on the good news to the folks who helped make it possible.
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