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The days of a one-and-done letter being effective are gone. When you are sick of hearing the message, it will begin to penetrate your audience. The professional use of direct mail fundraising requires an understanding both of the principles and practice of direct marketing and of the discipline of fundraising. In direct marketing, practitioners view large numbers of prospects or donors through the lens of statistics. Fundraising teaches us how to view prospects or donors as individuals, with unique values, beliefs, and preferences. Above all, Salsa’s direct mail solutions help nonprofits overcome donation obstacles and perfect winning fundraising strategies. Meyer Partners works with your organization to help you develop the perfect direct mail fundraising strategies to meet your goals, maximize fundraising outcomes, and further your cause.
I love this letter because it talks about the heat, something all people in AZ have to cope with, so I could relate. It is also urgent (“act now”) and recognizes that I have given in the past. When six-year-old Alec came to TROT one year ago, he didn’t talk to his parents or friends, and his father feared he never would. Thanks to you, today Alec talks all the time – and it’s music to his father’s ears.
Direct Mail Fundraising Best Practices
These links offer tips on integrating a direct-mail campaign with online fundraising tools such as email and social media. Multi-channel campaigns have the potential to reach a wider range of potential donors. An email to 1,000 donors, assuming no cost, but a .05% response rate will produce $150 from those thousand donors. The direct mail letter assuming it costs $950 to reach those thousand donors with a response rate of 4% will produce a total of $1,200 minus the $950 cost of the mailing for a net income of $250. As you mail to larger groups of donors the difference in favor of postal mail grows even larger. When you launch a campaign that leverages direct mail fundraising with digital strategies, it should be clear your cross-channel communications are part of the same initiative. This gives donors a more complete and connected experience.
How much should I charge for a fundraising letter?
The standard fee range for the printing, stuffing and mailing of a direct mail fundraising package is $. 50 – $1.75 per letter mailed.
Tal has witnessed the success of direct mail in the time of COVID-19 first-hand. In early March, NCC was just about to send its latest direct mail letter when the pandemic struck. The organization took a brief pause, rewrote the letter to focus on the impacts of COVID-19 and sent it off. One-to-one personalization lets you treat each donor as an individual based on what you know about them – their demographics, giving history, and more. Variable Data Printing helps your mail piece improve both the response rate and donation amounts by using customized copy and images.
Share Stories, Not Statistics
Bethany Health Care Center, who have taken the plunge to use direct mail at this time have been successful. They had the courage to fundraise during COVID-19 and it paid off. Direct mail fundraising is a great way to remind those donors who intended to give but got sidetracked. There’s no magic bullet when it comes to creating the perfect OE, but there are some best practices to keep in mind. And just like most things related to direct mail, what you think makes the most sense will probably backfire. Bring your story to life by supporting your narrative with a photo or a special handwritten note from your signatory.
You can give your stories more depth by building on them throughout the communications cycle. For example, your initial email can tell the beginning of the story of someone in need and explain how your organization wants to help. You’ve gotten someone to open your direct mail, you’ve hooked their attention, and now you need to steward them from top to bottom. To ensure that someone stays focused on your content, incorporate visual elements, data rich information, and small blocks of copy. Background information is useful, but you don’t need to use it on your direct mail. Instead, put a link to your website or campaign page where someone can go and read all the details around who you are, what you do, and who you serve.
What is the best way to raise money for someone?
Often, the most effective method to raise funds quickly is to ask for help from the community. First, figure out a way to accept gifts, either at a bank, credit union, or a website like PayPal. Then, spread the word about the person’s or family’s need.
Putting your entire database through a wealth data append. It will help you determine if there are retirement-age donors who may be ready to give more or include your organization in their end of life planning. Talk to your potential service provider about how they can test and adjust the performance of your campaign. Also, ask how they plan to make sure it continues hitting performance benchmarks over time. Another non-profit,Intervale Center, had planned out a year in advance to drop their Mother’s Day appeal in May this year, but then wondered, if they should still do so because of the pandemic. The appeal was a multichannel campaign, via email, direct mail, and social media.
Top Nonprofit Direct Mail Companies
But even if mom is not there to help them along, they do have you.. Thanks to your support, rambunctious puppies have their very own class at Best Friends where they learn to get comfy with our world. Once they find homes, they usually stay in them for life. Thank you in advance for helping us work toward changing the lives of children one smile at a time.
Similarly, donors don’t give to SickKids Hospital, the organization; they give to help sick children heal. Many, if not most, non-profits have to be super careful when spending money when prospecting for donors or communicating with current ones. Wherever you spend that money – online, offline, or ideally, a combination of both – you need to have the best data possible at the core of your efforts. With a compelling teaser headline and image, envelopes attract the prospect’s attention and get themselves opened. Check out our top donor management software providers to find the perfect solution for your organization that allows you to provide targeted outreach for donors. MWD believes in helping your organization build strong, long-lasting donor relationships by extensive direct mail strategy. They strive to move donors from “interest to action” with their direct mail fundraising solutions.
In fact, donors are three times more likely to give online in response to a direct mail appeal than an email, according toMobileCause. This blog post contains six examples of great direct mail letters that focus on the cause, not the organization. Looking for more advice on the use of storytelling in your fundraising communications? Here’s a great resource providing great tips and more on the science behind stories, and here’s a blog post highlighting common storytelling mistakes.
Additional Resources For Nonprofit Direct Mail Companies
Offering ways for your donors to invite others to donate. Including something of value within the package to show the donor you care. Include a direct, clear call-to-action so your reader doesn’t have to guess what you want. As the need spikes, the donations from year-end giving are running out. You can help us reverse this trend and end our fiscal year strong, prepared to face whatever lies ahead. Alec’s story caught the attention of Arizona Public Media. Alec’s parents wanted to help him communicate better and develop his social, emotional, and cognitive skills.
- There were minimal enclosures that included a reply card, and reply envelope, and a sticker with a photo of Tarzan, the chimp.
- It also shows your organization values your donors as individuals.
- You help to make so much good happen at the Sanctuary – from meals to medicine to soft blanket nests.
- These links offer tips to increase the open rate; a higher open rate usually leads to more donations.
- Review your results, process what you’ve learned, and respond to feedback.
These links explain how to analyze the results of a fundraising campaign in order to make future appeals more successful and track improvements over time. I fear that too many nonprofits have little or no understanding of direct mail and therefore avoid it. Instead they too easily default to digital, often in the mistaken belief that it’s “free” or inexpensive. Because of this current Covid-19 crisis and encouraged by media horror stories, the reaction of many charities has been to immediately cut communications and furlough their fundraisers. We hope that this article will make them think again. For clearly, they, their donors and their beneficiaries are missing out, because of their failure to understand how fundraising works at a time of crisis.
As a top provider of nonprofit technology, it’s no wonder thatSalsa Labs’direct mail fundraising services are on our list. GivingMail is a fundraising company dedicated to setting nonprofits up with the tools they need for organizational success.
They surpassed their own goal by 296% — and in just three weeks! So, make sure you have a donor’s correct email address and current mailing address in your records. Get the latest fundraising tips, trends, and ideas in your inbox. Sorry, this blog post is closed for further comments.
Based in Chicago, Meyer Partners is a full-service nonprofit communications agency. They strive to create an integrated storytelling approach to their clients’ marketing. They don’t want to send the same message out via email, social, phone, and direct mail. Instead, their team uses data-driven analytics to create a comprehensive communication plan that nurtures long-term relationships with donors. In recent years, electronic communication media has been used more commonly among nonprofits. Online, email, and social media campaigns, collectively referred to as digital fundraising, have been used in coordination with direct mail fundraising. Nonprofits supplement direct mail campaigns with email blasts and social media posts, using similar messaging and visuals to tie the various communications together.
When the time comes for your next appeal, send a piece of direct mail to these people and send them an email appeal. As soon as they respond to your online appeal over the direct mail appeal, and make an online gift, you can remove them from your direct mail list. Keep in mind that the outside of the email is just as important as the inside, and that the outside of a direct mail letter is no different. Add a short phrase to the outside that calls the reader to open the letter for a specific reason. To further increase open rates, incorporate your logo, an impactful image, and your organization’s colors on the envelope itself.
Many potential donors throw away fundraising letters without even opening the envelope. These links offer tips to increase the open rate; a higher open rate usually leads to more donations.
If you don’t yet have these capabilities, then determine if you had an increase in online donations while your campaign was happening. Nearly thirty years after the first website went public, non-profit fundraising direct mail remains the dominant outreach channel for organizations of all types and sizes. Even as the pandemic accelerated adoption of online technologies over the last year, mail continues to be the driving force for acquiring, upgrading and keeping donors and members. With a team boasting over 35 years of experience, MWD Agencyhas provided direct mail services to nonprofit organizations natonwide. When organizations combine direct mail with digital methods, response rates climb to 28%. Writing an excellent direct mail fundraising letter can look overwhelming.
