Writing a successful donation request letter depends upon understanding the genre and its conventions as well as your unique rhetorical situation.

Donation request letters are written by many people for many different purposes, and yours will have its own unique rhetorical situation. There are a couple things to consider before beginning your writing task:

• Check to see if there is already a method in place for your target company, organization, or individual to receive donation requests (such as a Grant Proposal). If there is, you will want to follow the preferred methods of your audience.
• Find out any communication regulations set forth by your organization or company if you are composing on behalf of a larger body. Companies or organizations may have rules regarding letterheads, font and color selections, logos, or other aspects of written communication.
• Find out who your official sender is going to be. This should be the person with whom the recipient will interact, should they choose to respond.