Kappa House

I designed a logo and stationery and composed direct mail letters to solicit lead gifts and additional donations to raise money for capital improvements to a sorority house on the University of North Carolina campus.

Lead Gifts Letter

A Capital Campaign Preview, Only for Kappa Leaders

Dear Kappa Leader,

Early in the new year, an envelope bearing the familiar Kappa key will arrive in your mailbox, containing a letter from the two of us announcing the Kappa Legacy 100 Capital Campaign. The campaign will fund a number of critically important structural repairs and past-due renovations to the Kappa house, which turns 100 in 2014.

Based on competitive bids for the essential projects, we have set the campaign goal at $350,000. Here’s your special “sneak preview” of the campaign priorities:

• Structural repairs, including a new roof and a new porch
• Redecoration and new furnishings for the dining room
• Kitchen renovations
• Enhancements to the upstairs bathrooms
• Painting and repairs to the upstairs bedrooms
• New furnishings for some bedrooms
• New landscaping

Because of the leadership you demonstrated during your days on campus, we are writing you now to alert you to the upcoming campaign launch and to appeal to you for your immediate commitment to secure the success of the campaign.

During this preliminary “quiet” phase, we are asking you, as one of our most loyal Kappa leaders, to commit now to making a significant lead gift, payable over a three-year pledge period, to the Legacy 100 campaign.

While gifts of any amount are much needed and most welcome, we urge you to join us in considering a gift of $3,000 to $5,000, payable over the three-year pledge period. Your campaign pledge of at least $3,000 qualifies you for membership in the Campaign Cabinet, with your name to be listed on all campaign correspondence.

Naming opportunities for selected rooms, furnishings and the new porch are available to individuals and pledge classes for gifts ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, also payable over three years. All gifts of $1,000 or more will be recognized on signs within the house.

With the launch only weeks away, we ask you to respond with your pledge commitment by January 5, 2012. With generous pledges from their leaders in hand, we can assure our sisters of the campaign’s success.

Just as your Kappa sisters depended on your leadership during your days on campus, all of us–sisters past, present and future–are depending on you now to lead by example with your pledge to the Kappa Legacy 100 Campaign. We look forward to receiving your completed pledge form soon.

Loyally,

Dorothea Lowendick Bitler ’77
Loy Barbre McGill ‘76
Campaign Co-Chairs

P.S. Remember, broad participation is especially important! Your pledge of a lead gift in any amount is the key to the campaign’s success!

Member Letter

“…and in the years after, with tears or with laughter, we’ll always remember our dear Kappa days.”

Dear Kappa Sister,

Do you remember the first time you walked through the front door of the Kappa house?

You were most likely a freshman, maybe a little homesick but too proud to admit it, hoping to make a good first impression, all the while wondering if this big old gray house at the corner of Pittsboro and McCauley would become your home-away-from-home for the next four years.

Built in 1914 and home to Epsilon Gamma for more than 50 years, the Kappa house is a landmark within a designated historic district. Like any lived-in vintage home fast approaching its 100th year of service, our campus home requires considerable ongoing care and maintenance to remain comfortable for current members and attractive to prospects as they compare it with other competing houses on campus.

Last summer, using borrowed funds secured by our House Board, we redecorated the downstairs living areas and the dining room. We also converted the “little house” into an attractive study area and renovated the existing study area in the main house to accommodate more live-in members. The results are quite impressive and went a long way last fall in helping us attract an especially strong class of new members.

But our work is far from complete. Remaining essential Kappa house projects include:

• Structural repairs, including a new roof and a new porch
• Redecoration and new furnishings for the dining room
• Kitchen renovations
• Enhancements to the upstairs bathrooms
• Painting and repairs to the upstairs bedrooms
• New furnishings for some bedrooms
• New landscaping

Based on bids from a number of contractors, we estimate costs to repair, renovate and restore our beloved Kappa house will total $350,000. Work is scheduled to begin in early summer and conclude in time for fall recruitment.

The Kappa Legacy 100 Capital Campaign

No matter when you called the Kappa house home, the Kappas before you did their part to make sure the house was structurally sound, in good repair and attractively decorated and furnished for you to enjoy during your college years.

Now it’s our turn.

To fund these long-overdue repairs and improvements to our nearly 100-year-old house, we are launching the Kappa Legacy 100 Capital Campaign.

While gifts to the campaign of any amount are much needed and most welcome, we have included suggested gift amounts on the enclosed pledge envelope. We encourage you to give as generously as you are able, keeping in mind you may spread your payments over a three-year pledge period.

Naming opportunities for selected rooms, furnishings and the new porch are available to individuals and pledge classes for gifts starting at $5,000. Gifts of at least $1,000, also payable over the three-year pledge period, will be recognized on signs within the renovated areas of the house.

Within the walls of our cherished Kappa house—where Epsilon Gamma women have exhibited a spirit of success for more than 50 years—we were sheltered, nurtured, supported, empowered and introduced to leadership and philanthropy. As we grew and learned together, we forged bonds of friendship and sisterhood there to last a lifetime.

With your generous gift to the Kappa Legacy 100 Capital Campaign, you express the value you place on your experience as a Kappa during your college years and beyond.

Let us hear from you soon!

Loyally,

Dorothea Lowendick Bitler ’77
Loy Barbre McGill ‘76
Campaign Co-Chairs

P.S. Remember, both broad and generous participation are important! Your pledge of a gift in any amount is the key to the campaign’s success!