Sample Fundraising Letter
Dear fellow physicians:
My name is […] with your help, I will board a plane to Entebbe, Uganda, to join a program that enables Ugandan people to provide health care where it is so desperately needed.
I will be a joining Omni Med (www.omnimed.org), a 501(c)(3) organization started by Dr. Edward O’Neil in four countries to provide sustainable health care to the global poor. Dr. O’Neil realized that when medical professionals go to an impoverished country to provide assistance, their effect is transitory. Only by creating a system that improves the health care in that impoverished community will there be any lasting change…
The model of sending health care workers to places where they are desperately needed is largely flawed. While some lives may be saved, it does nothing to provide lasting improvement in a failed or failing health system. To combat this intrinsic flaw, Omni Med has helped develop a model in which U.S. health volunteers, under close supervision of Omni Med's in country staff, train Ugandan community health workers in several primary care areas. The Ugandan Ministry of Health originated the program and Omni Med has become a close and reliable partner. It works under the aegis of the Village Health Teams (VHT) Initiative in which local community health workers provide immediate care for local villagers, offering a full range of preventive and treatment services to rural populations.
The VHT Initiative involves training locally elected villagers over an intensive one-week period, and then maintaining them through quarterly educational meetings, home visits, arranging time at local health centers, holding local elections, and involving them in many programs such as cookstove & protected water source construction, ITN distribution, MOH sponsored Family Health Days, vaccination programs, ITN Distribution, and much more. I will be responsible for teaching a range of topics during this month. I will be visiting homes with the VHTs in the villages where they live, handing out and reviewing laminated sheets in the local language with detailed preventive health strategies that have been shown to be life-saving.
[writer’s past experiences with medical aid missions]
My previous experiences have shown me the dramatic impact a medical expedition can have on a population… I believe the VHT program is the best model to provide sustained and consistent health care to the greatest number of people. By training these teams to provide targeted care in areas like oral rehydration, febrile illnesses, and maternal-child issues, we will be combating the top and seemingly easiest to remedy causes of mortality in Uganda.
I have been blessed with a life free from deprivation of food, warmth, shelter, or health care. I now have a unique opportunity to pay back all the fortune I have had in my life. I believe this program will allow me to have a much greater and more sustained impact than my previous medical expeditions.
Your 100% tax-deductible donation has the opportunity to not only help one community, but also multiple communities for generations. My total trip cost is approximately $3500.
Here is how you can donate:
Go to my page on MightyCause.com (https://www.mightycause.com). Find the Omni Med page, and then look for my name. There you can make a tax-deductable donation. They will send you a letter for your taxes and you will be able to track my progress there.
Please email at ____ so that I may properly thank you and so that I can send you pictures and keep you updated during the trip.
Thank you for your time and your consideration.