Strike a Match

The first one was sent with the subject line, “Urgent: Buy a Kid Some Time before it’s too late.” When recipients clicked through, before the start of the letter, there was a post from a teenage boy that was posted on the KHP help site in bold, italic type: “It’s Christmas day and no one cares. I’m really depressed and all I can think about is how meaningless life is, it’s full of lies and sorrow. I really hate Christmas. I tried to kill myself last year and I don’t want to do that again. Please help.”

Talk about a powerful introduction, one that puts the donor right in the mind-set of the recipients of KHP’s services.

The short, four-paragraph e-mail reads: “Right now, you need to know that Kids Help Phone is trying to keep up with the urgent demand for our services. Any kid or teen with nowhere else to turn, like the one who posted the message above, needs the professional guidance you make possible with your donation. Your gift really does save lives because it means someone can be there to answer the phone when a desperate kid calls and to respond online to their urgent requests for support. But we can’t be there for them without you. That’s not a platitude. It’s simply the truth.

“Please Buy A Kid Some Time now. Give the gift of compassionate, professional counselling this holiday. A gift of just $25 buys a kid 5 minutes — precious time that could save a life.

“Your donation will have double the impact. Parmalat Canada will match your donation up to a maximum of $30,000 — so your generosity will make an even bigger difference.

“Help us keep our promise to kids — to be there whenever they cry out for help.”