We sent letters of appeal through the postal system to potential and existing donors. When opened, each letter popped like a Christmas cracker - an unexpected reminder of South Africa’s brutal past where some anti-apartheid activists were killed by security police using letter bombs. Each letter of appeal urged the reader to support the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Memory and Dialogue Programmes by pledging their financial support. We sent out 50 such letters of appeal to prominent South Africans. The Foundation hoped for 25 serious responses.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation needed to raise funds to continue Nelson Mandela’s ideal of a just society, through its Memory and Dialogue programmes. The Foundation wanted to reach its database of existing and potential donors. Because asking for funding is a very personal and private matter, emails were not an option and we opted for letters. The challenge was that our target market are prominent South Africans who don’t always have time to read mail. We needed to do something powerful that would get their attention and show them why their donation is important.

We sent out 50 letters of appeal to prominent South Africans in January 2011. Within two months the Foundation received 31 enquiries resulting in substantial financial pledges.

Using the device of an apartheid era ‘letter bomb’, we were able to make our target market sit up and think about South Africa’s apartheid past. A past we left behind thanks to the sacrifices of people like Ruth First and Nelson Mandela. But their work is not done. With our target market’s donations, we can continue to work towards Mandela’s ideal of a just society, free from intolerance and inequality.