It’s time for non-profits to start thinking about end-of-year support opportunities and our friend Kirk Walden, publisher of LifeTrends, offers a sample appeal letter, below. Kirk says you are welcome to customize this letter for your organization and use it “as is” or consider it as a launching point for your own letter.

While this letter is for current supporters, you could easily adapt it for potential supporters. For instance, rather than thanking them for their faithfulness to your ministry, you could thank them for taking a moment to learn more about ways that they can make a life-giving difference in the community throughout the new year to come.

To use the letter for potential supporters, Kirk also suggests that you revise the paragraph under “Launching (name of ministry) into the New Year” by substituting this wording:

“Of course at year-end, your gift will give us a significant boost as we close out the year and set our course for 2010. You may join others who are planning gifts of $25, $50, $100 or perhaps much more. If this is possible for you, we would appreciate your remembering (name of ministry).”

And here’s one more idea: As you close out 2009, you might also want to take a look at Kirk’s IMPACT booklet, a concise little publication that is chock-full of creative ways for donors to support your ministry. He has also crafted a sample letter that you could use along with the IMPACT booklet how you could use it with an end-of-year appeal.

Here’s the sample end-of-year appeal.