Training Volunteers to Write Persuasive, Personal Letters: A Step-by-Step Guide

Last week I watched a volunteer stare at a blank notecard for fifteen minutes. She’d shown up eager to help, brought her own stamps, even recruited two friends to join her. But when it came time to actually write, she froze. “I don’t know what to say that would matter to someone I’ve never met.”

This happens at every campaign. You’ve recruited your volunteers. You’ve got systems to keep them engaged. But if they can’t write letters that actually move people, you’re just wasting stamps.

The difference between campaigns that generate real voter contact and those that generate recycling isn’t motivation or organization. It’s training. Here’s how to teach volunteers to write letters that people actually read and respond to.

Start with the Why Before the How

Your volunteers don’t need to become professional copywriters. They need to understand why handwritten letters work when everything else gets ignored.

Start your training by sharing this data: The Analyst Institute’s 2017-2018 study found that handwritten postcards increased turnout by 0.4 percentage points, outperforming the typical door-to-door canvass which increases turnout by 0.3 percent. Vote Forward’s later experiments found even stronger effects, with handwritten letters boosting turnout by 0.8 percentage points. Letters work because they signal genuine human effort in a world of automated everything.

But here’s what volunteers really need to hear: Their letters work best when they sound like they’re from a real person, not a campaign. Research suggests that nonpartisan messages focusing on civic duty can be more effective than explicitly partisan appeals, particularly with younger voters. Your volunteers’ amateur status is actually an advantage if you train them to use it.

Show examples of real letters that worked. Many campaigns collect success stories from volunteers who received responses or saw their targets take action. Nothing motivates new volunteers like hearing that past letters actually made a difference to real voters.

The Anatomy of a Letter That Gets Read

Forget everything you learned about five-paragraph essays. Effective advocacy letters follow a different structure that volunteers can master in one training session.

The Opening: Make a Connection The first sentence determines whether someone keeps reading or tosses your letter. Skip “Dear Fellow Voter” or “I’m writing to ask for your support.” Instead, train volunteers to start with something human:

• “I’m writing to you from my kitchen table in Austin because…”
• “As someone who also lives in District 4…”
• “I’ve been thinking about our neighborhood lately…”

Give volunteers a list of connection points they can choose from: geographic (same city/district), generational (fellow parent, retiree), or experiential (first-time volunteer, longtime resident). Let them pick what feels authentic to them.

The Story: Why You Care This is where most campaigns fail. They give volunteers talking points about policy positions and endorsements. But voters don’t care about your candidate’s twelve-point plan. They care about why a stranger took time to write to them.

Train volunteers to tell a brief, personal story about why they’re volunteering. Not “healthcare is important” but “I’m writing letters because my daughter has asthma and I worry about air quality in our schools.” Give them story prompts:

• A moment when you realized this election mattered
• Something specific you hope changes in your community
• Why you decided to volunteer instead of just voting

One volunteer told me she wrote forty letters after I had her practice telling her story about her son’s teacher getting laid off. The story took three sentences, but it was real.

The Ask: Specific and Achievable Don’t train volunteers to write “Please vote.” Everyone knows they should vote. Train them to make specific asks:

• “Will you join me in voting early? The location at the library has no lines before 10am.”
• “Can you commit to bringing one friend with you to vote?”
• “The ballot is confusing this year. Proposition 3 is the one about school funding.”

Provide volunteers with 3-5 specific asks they can choose from. Let them pick what they’d actually say to a neighbor.

Running Your Training Session

The best training happens through practice, not presentation. Here’s the structure that’s worked for dozens of campaigns:

First 15 Minutes: Why This Matters Share the data, show example letters, let volunteers ask questions. Keep it conversational. If someone’s skeptical that letters work, acknowledge it. “I was skeptical too until I saw the response rates.”

Next 20 Minutes: Write Together Have everyone write their opening paragraph at the same time. Then go around and have volunteers share (optional, never force it). Point out what works: “Notice how Maria mentioned she’s a nurse? That builds trust immediately.”

Do the same for the story section. Give them five minutes to write, then share examples. Volunteers learn faster from each other than from you.

Final 25 Minutes: Practice and Feedback Pair volunteers up to write complete letters and trade for feedback. Give them a simple feedback framework:

• What made you want to keep reading?
• What felt most genuine?
• Was the ask clear?

Walk around and offer help, but let peers do most of the feedback. They’re better at spotting what sounds fake or forced.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

“My handwriting is terrible” Show them Barack Obama’s handwriting. It’s barely legible. Remind them that messy handwriting actually tests better than perfect cursive because it looks more authentic. As long as the address is readable, they’re fine.

“I don’t know enough about the issues” Good. Voters trust regular people more than experts. Train volunteers to write about what they personally care about, not comprehensive policy positions. “I don’t understand all the budget details, but I know our schools need help” is better than a paragraph of talking points.

“This feels manipulative” Some volunteers struggle with the idea of persuasion. Reframe it: They’re not manipulating anyone. They’re sharing their genuine perspective with someone who might not otherwise hear it. If they don’t believe in what they’re writing, help them find an authentic message they can stand behind.

“Can I mention the candidate/party?” It depends on your organization type. If you’re working with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, you cannot endorse candidates or parties. Focus on nonpartisan voter engagement and issue education. For 501(c)(4) organizations and campaigns, yes, but train volunteers to do it naturally. “I’m voting for Jane Smith because…” works better than “Jane Smith is the endorsed candidate of…” Personal endorsement beats institutional endorsement every time.

Quality Control Without Crushing Enthusiasm

You need to review letters before they go out, but heavy-handed editing kills volunteer momentum. Here’s the balance:

Set clear boundaries upfront: No profanity, no attacks on opponents, no false information. Everything else is style preference.

When reviewing, look for:

• Is the ask clear?
• Is there something personal in it?
• Would you read this if you received it?

If a letter is too generic, don’t rewrite it. Ask the volunteer: “Can you add one sentence about why this matters to you personally?” They’ll usually come up with something better than what you would have suggested.

Let imperfection through. A genuine letter with a coffee stain beats a form letter every time. One campaign I worked with saw their response rate go up after they stopped fixing every grammar error. Voters can spot authenticity.

The Secret Weapon: Peer Training

Your best trainers aren’t you. They’re the volunteers who wrote letters last cycle. Have experienced volunteers share what worked for them, what felt weird at first, how they found their voice.

Create a “letter hall of fame” with examples from your own volunteers (with permission). Seeing that Sarah from the Tuesday group got three callbacks from her letters motivates people more than any research study.

Record your training session and create a simple handout with story prompts and example openings. New volunteers can self-train when they can’t make meetings. But don’t over-systematize. The magic happens when volunteers find their own voice.

Make It Sustainable

A good training system reproduces itself. Your initial trainees become trainers for the next wave. Document what works, but keep evolving based on what volunteers actually struggle with.

The goal isn’t perfect letters. It’s volunteers who feel confident enough to write authentically and keep coming back. When someone tells you, “I actually enjoyed writing those letters,” you know your training worked.

Now that you understand how to train volunteers effectively, make sure you have the complete campaign infrastructure ready. Check out our guide on planning your first letter-writing campaign for the full timeline and logistics checklist.

What training techniques have worked for your volunteers? What approaches helped them find their authentic voice? Share your experiences with us!