Are you looking for an outside opinion on a direct-mail appeal?

Prospecting offers fund raisers the chance to get a critique from their peers on their draft appeal letters.

Ann Logan, chairwoman of Reach Out and Read Colorado, has asked Chronicle readers to offer their advice on the following letter, which is scheduled to be mailed this month to new potential donors.

As always, we ask that you provide constructive advice. We’ll share the next draft of this letter once it is available.

Here it is:

Dear (recipient’s name),

Good Night Moon, Tikki Tikki Tembo, and The Cat in the Hat are books that you might remember with pleasure from your childhood or from reading to your own children. Unfortunately, all children do not have the same opportunity to share books with their parents that most of you have experienced. This isn’t because these parents love their children less, but because many parents do not realize the pleasure and importance of sharing books to help their children be better prepared for success in school.

Of all parent-child activities, reading aloud provides the richest exposure to language, thus stimulating cognitive skills and building motivation, curiosity and memory. Not only does each child have an increased likelihood of achieving his or her potential, but the collective success of at-risk children all over the country, will lead to increased productivity and economic security for our entire community.

• Reach Out and Read is a national, evidence-based intervention program that trains health care providers serving low-income children and their families to give literacy-related advice and children’s books as routinely as immunizations at pediatric well-child visits.

• In Colorado 125,000 new books along with literacy guidance were given out in 2008 in 130 clinics in 50 counties around the state at an approximate total cost of $4.00 per visit.

• Over the first five years each child will receive eight to ten books, and the parents will hear eight to ten times about their importance as their child’s first teacher from a trusted messenger, their child’s health care provider.

• Over 89% of all children under six see their doctor at least once a year: only 30% of all children under six are in a formal child care setting.

• Reach Out and Read is the only pediatric literacy organization in the country and is endorsed by American Academy of Pediatrics.

Reach Out and Read Colorado needs your help in continuing and expanding this program, which is now reaching 51% of all low-income children in the targeted age range in the state. At the low cost of $4.00 per visit we are stretching your donation to help solve a national literacy problem that has a significant impact on all of us. Enclosed is a donor envelope, or you may respond to our website, www.reachoutandreadco.org.

The El Pomar Foundation awarded Reach Out and Read Colorado its Award for Excellence in Education for 2008. Please join them in supporting a winner. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Ann Logan Steve Vogler, M.D. Megan Wilson Board Chair Medical Director Executive Director