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Fundraising Tuesday: Should Direct Mail Be A Part of Your Fundraising Campaign?

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A guest post by Grant Cobb of GivingMail

As you look forward to 2021 and beyond, consider new trends that begin to emerge and the long-standing efforts that persevere when crafting your fundraising campaigns. One of our favorites that continues to stand the test of time is direct mail.

Our GivingMail guide on direct mail for nonprofits shares that direct mail continues to be the leading source of individual donations in the U.S. So, yes, direct mail should be a part of your fundraising campaign.

Through our 70+ years of experience, we know a thing or two about hosting a successful direct mail fundraising campaign—and we’ve put together this quick guide so that you can too. Specifically, we’ll discuss the following key points:

  • Integrating direct mail and digital strategies
  • Building relationships with supporters
  • Thanking donors for their contributions
  • Direct mail best practices

Integrating direct mail and digital strategies

Direct mail is an important channel for grabbing your audience’s attention and encouraging them to give. But is it enough?

According to 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics list, 16% of donors prefer to give via direct mail. That’s a good portion of your audience that will be happy to mail a check for your fundraising campaign. However, there’s still a large number of supporters who might prefer to give digitally. The solution? Integrating your direct mail and virtual fundraising strategies.

Here are three simple ways to do so:

  • Include an easy-to-type URL in your direct mailing.
  • Generate and display a QR code leading to your donation page.
  • Incorporate your text-to-give number and keyword.

Integrating your direct mail and digital strategies allows you and your supporters to get the best of both worlds. You can grab your audiences’ attention with one of the most powerful marketing and communication channels available while still allowing them to give in the most convenient way.

Building relationships with supporters

Even beyond the actual donation ask, direct mailings can greatly impact your donor relationships and how recipients view their connection to your organization.

Essentially, sending campaign updates, informational newsletters, and other types of non-fundraising asks via direct mail can be a fantastic way to communicate to donors that they matter on a level that’s deeper than their wallets. This is referred to as donor stewardship or cultivation efforts, and it’s a critical component of bringing supporters into the mix as partners.

Direct mail is also one of the most powerful communication channels for this type of relationship-building due to its ability to break through the digital clutter. Studies show that written words can keep your organization at the top of the recipient’s mind for longer than if they were to read about your work on a screen.

Thanking donors for their contributions

Even once you’ve received your donation, it doesn’t mean your job as a fundraising professional is over. Instead, it’s time to continue deepening your relationships with donors—starting with a specific, detailed thank-you.

So how should you communicate your appreciation to your supporters? There’s a bit of controversy in the fundraising space about whether an email can suffice as a thank-you message or whether a direct mailing should be required. In our opinion, a thank-you email can be an excellent first step, but it definitely shouldn’t be the last. Instead, a physical thank-you note sent to a donor’s mailbox can make a significant impact on their connection to your organization.

Luckily, free templates like these can help you craft your messages with ease. Simply start with a sample thank-you letter, and be sure to add important details like addressing the recipient by their preferred name and acknowledging their specific gift. Let’s compare these two potential messages:

  • Dear Donor, thank you for your generous gift to our organization.
  • Dear Brenda, thank you for your gift of $100 to help provide impoverished students in our community with the school supplies they need to succeed.

The first example seems like it was mass-sent to anyone who had donated recently. The latter is a specific message crafted carefully with the intended recipient in mind. The added effort that goes into sending a thank-you letter via direct mail rather than email can also show your increased dedication to appreciating donors effectively.

Direct mail best practices

Now that you understand the purpose of direct mail in fundraising, it’s essential to get your message out in the most effective way possible. Let’s discuss a few key strategies and tips:

1. Include specific donation requests

In any direct mail appeals you send, it’s important to include a specific call to action. In a typical fundraising letter, the intended action is to complete a donation.

However, making a broad request for donations can be too vague to drive results. That’s why you should be sure to include specific numbers to help guide the donor on their giving path.

Take a look at these examples:

  • A donation of $25 can feed a hungry child for one week.
  • A donation of $100 can feed a hungry child for one month.
  • A donation of $500 can feed a family of four for one month.

All of these requests are more effective and actionable than “Please donate to our organization.”

By incorporating specific dollar amounts, along with the tangible impacts of each donation size, you encourage recipients to support your organization and its mission by giving more. Plus, you can leverage the power of social proof by showing potential donors what a typical gift size is, which removes the uncertainty around what they’re “supposed to” give.

2. Invest in high-quality materials

Even the most well-written fundraising letter won’t ensure results (or donations) if you neglect the appeal’s physical aspects. If it comes across as looking unenticing or otherwise spammy, it might even go straight from the mailbox to the trash can! One way to avoid this phenomenon is by investing in high-quality materials (like paper, ink, and envelopes) for your mailings.

  • Print your direct mailings on high-grade paper (at least 60#).
  • Use a decent printer and ink so that your text/imagery is legible and visually appealing.
  • Include a pre-paid, pre-addressed return envelope with any direct mail appeals.

Putting thought into optimizing your direct mailings’ physical elements is a great way to increase your envelope open rate. At this point, your content’s quality will take over in coaxing a donation from the reader. After all, making a good first impression matters.

3. Outsource your direct mail efforts

A well-planned-out direct mail fundraising campaign could take a lot of work to pull off. However, it’s possible to outsource the bulk of the effort to a dedicated direct mail fundraising company and save time and money for your mission.

Just like working with an experienced fundraising consultant can help your team make the most of your efforts (and your fundraising dollars), a direct mail platform can help you send your appeals effectively while seeing the most outstanding results.

Not only can this type of partner provide you with free and effective donation request letters and templates, but they can also assist you in sending your letters in the most time- and cost-efficient manner possible.

Direct mail companies can even help send your mailings for less than it would cost to purchase paper, ink, envelopes, and stamps on your own—thanks to bulk discounts made available by bundling your appeals with other organizations.’ It’s a win-win!

Just remember—it’s not good enough to scribble a note and drop it off at the post office. Make sure to craft your appeals carefully to increase the likelihood of your letter being opened, read, and responded to. Good luck!

 

Grant Cobb is a fundraising specialist with over 6 years of experience in the nonprofit space. Currently the head of marketing and analytics at GivingMail, he is a huge proponent of data-driven decision making and the push to bring high-level analytics and fundraising to all.

Use Content You Didn’t Write, and Add Value

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gift

You can share a lot more content with your donors and supporters if you don't have to write it all. Share on X

Giving your donors content that matters to them is a generous gift. It’s also a way to make them value their relationship with your nonprofit even more.

When you share information that make them feel better, or smarter, or more well informed, you are priming your donors to read the next thing you send them–even if the next thing is an appeal for their support! And you are making them more likely to be generous in their turn.

But how do you come up with that content? Day after day, week after week, in your blog, your social media, and your newsletter?

Partly, you adopt an environmental philosophy: “reuse and recycle.” The same idea can turn into a blog post, a newsletter article, a video, and multiple posts or tweets on social media.

But partly, you realize that you can make good use of content that other people have created.

Working with Guest Authors

You might have noticed that I’ve had the pleasure of hosting a bunch of guest posts in the last few months:

And you will see more guest posts mixed in among my own inimitable prose in the months ahead! That’s not just to make my life easier (although it certainly helps). I host guest authors because they have something valuable to share with you, the readers of this blog.

How can your nonprofit work with guest authors to inform, entertain, and delight your donors? Here’s my advice:

  1. Have a strong sense of your audience, and make sure your guest authors are speaking to that audience. (If they aren’t yet, show them how you do it!)
  2. Promote their guest posts on your social media, and ask them to do the same, on theirs.
  3. Develop a working relationship with the guest author, so they are interested in sending you more good content in the future.

Collecting Content from the Web

Besides the people who write guest posts for you, where else can you get news, advice, perspectives, and information that your donors and supporters will love?

Answer: online.

You can approach the task of collecting content for your audience from the internet in two complementary ways. You can search for keywords you know will interest them, and you can monitor other sites that routinely post the right stuff.

For keyword search, please don’t spend your time manually checking for your keywords over and over. Automate it!

I recommend you set up a Google Alert  for a few keywords related to your donor’s interests. Have Google send you a daily digest by email. Then, you can look at the articles when you have the time and choose the ones that really hit the spot. Schedule them using something like Hootsuite or Buffer, or the tool of your choice.

For monitoring sites you like, the best tool I have found is Feedspot. I add blogs and websites I know produce valuable content for my audience. Then, from time to time, Feedspot suggests other, similar sites.

Again, if you use a tool like this, it’s convenient (because you can look through a list of posts all in the same email), efficient (because it takes much less time than visiting all those sites), and encouraging. Yes, you will be more likely to communicate regularly with your donors if you know it will be easy!

Adding Value and Making It Your Own

Now the work of communicating with your donors consistently has become much simpler. Congratulations! But please make sure that when you curate other people’s work, you a) give credit where credit is due, and b) put your own twist on what you share.

You can give credit by naming the original source and linking back to their site.

You can make it your own by adding something to what they wrote–ideally, something that your organization is in a special position to say. Let me give an example here.

One of my clients is an organization dedicated to helping Black women find the resources that they need to heal, advance, and organize. They work on a variety of issues, because their focus is not the issue but the person affected. Because of that:

  • When they share an article about navigating the medical establishment, they add an intro about the particular barriers Black women face, and strategies to surmount those barriers.
  • When they post items related to Mother’s Day, they relate them to Black women raising children.
  • When they direct their constituents to information about harm reduction, or environmental racism, or policy initiatives, they choose sources that take the experience of Black women into account–and they add thoughts based on their own expertise.

If you get into the routine of choosing content with your audience in mind, and putting it in the context that matters most to them, your readers…

…then those readers (including your donors!) will welcome every email, every blog or social media post, every video,  every newsletter you send their way. Each bit of content will be a gift you send them. And they will reciprocate with their own generosity.

Nonprofits and COVID-19: Where and How We Can Help

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A guest post by Mike Barros of Lumaverse

Nonprofits play an integral role in providing resources for COVID-19 relief in their communities. From streamlining appointment registration to managing volunteers through their CRM, there are countless ways charitable organizations are helping in the face of crisis.

Even further, positively communicating with your team and donor base speaks volumes about your appreciation for their efforts. That will positively impact your organization after normal life resumes.

Since the pandemic began in 2020, organizations have used their donor CRM data to contribute to COVID relief efforts in many ways. Specifically, optimized data and communications strategies can help streamline the following operations:

  • Volunteer management
  • Appointment & vaccine scheduling
  • Expressing gratitude and raising morale

Regardless of your organization’s core mission, we’re all serving the greater good in the face of the current social, economic, and healthcare crisis. Read on to find out more about how you can help your community in the face of COVID-19.

Volunteer Management

Volunteer management is the process of finding, engaging, and retaining helpers for a cause. Whether you’re looking for a group to help expedite the COVID testing process or to collect supplies for those out of work, your volunteer management strategy is crucial to your impact on the community.

When looking for help, optimize your data to find out which of your supporters would rather (and can) give money and who would instead give time. For example, if you’re looking to put together a group of volunteers to gather supplies for your local food bank, you can use your data stored by your software to know who you can ask to help. 

For example, your organization can use volunteer management software to keep your team organized and informed when searching for COVID-19 relief volunteers. Your volunteer management software can also help your organization:

  • Build connections for relief efforts into the future
  • Find the right people for your specific cause
  • Deliver data based on your volunteer relationships
  • Manage donations and giving histories

With these features in mind, you’ll have no problem finding and putting together a volunteer base that can serve whichever issue you’re working to solve.

Appointment & Vaccine Scheduling

Scheduling appointments has been a struggle for many organizations during the pandemic due to the overwhelming need for help. This includes helping those who are seeking vaccine and testing appointments. Too often, people eligible for a test or vaccine struggle to get a time slot and receive the help they need.

Efficient scheduling software can help you expedite the fight against COVID-19 in your community. Consider the following benefits you can provide for your supporters with your know-how and powerful appointment scheduling software:

  • Easy-to-use calendar interface
  • Automated email reminders
  • Confirmation receipts
  • Around-the-clock sign up opportunities

With these benefits and more, your organization can help those frustrated with signing up for COVID-19 related appointments and take the load off of those who are already dedicating their lives to providing medical support.

Talk to your local healthcare providers to find out more about how you can help schedule anything from volunteer shifts to appointments. According to  Double the Donation’s guide to coronavirus resources for nonprofits, there are endless ways to get involved in this effort.

Expressing Gratitude and Raising Morale

Last but certainly not least, your organization should provide support for those who support you. Everyone is sacrificing their usual ways of life to help prevent the spread of disease and aid others during this time. On top of this, people have to isolate themselves in their homes and deal with the hardships of our current world. Therefore, showing gratitude is as crucial as ever because it:

  • Encourages repeat giving. Because your supporters have already contributed to your cause in one way or another, they’re highly likely to give again. They’ve already seen how their efforts have positively impacted the community through your outreach and are familiar with your giving process.
  • Increases volunteer retention. When you retain patrons as you continue to pursue your efforts, you’ll have a dependable support base, saving time and money. According to Lumaverse’s guide to volunteer appreciation, supporter retention should be around 40%, and working to increase your retention rate will help your organization secure long-term giving.
  • Expedites future planning. As you retain your supporters, they’ll become your go-to’s for your future needs! No longer will your team have to worry about having enough people to run a fundraising event, so you’ll have people who regularly give time and money.

For example, the TY Thursday column of this blog helps explain how to best appreciate your volunteers in such challenging times. The key takeaway of saying thank you is recognizing that your donor is still giving time, resources, and money to others despite the hardships they may be facing. Some ways to show this can be through outreach, such as:

  • Thank you notes
  • Follow-up input surveys
  • Branded merchandise
  • Sponsor recognition
  • Social media shout-outs

These are just a handful of ways to show gratitude for your generous donors and volunteers. When you strengthen your connections with them, you’ll have a reliable task force to help with relief efforts, especially during the COVID era.

Nonprofits play a considerable role in COVID-19 relief in their communities. Whether they help find volunteers for related tasks, expedite appointment registration, and retain helpers for future endeavors, their impact is immeasurable.

Remember, time, supplies, and financial donations are integral parts of keeping your community afloat during hardships. Be a resource of relief both internally and externally for your organization, and stay safe!

 

Mike Barros LumaverseMike Barros is the President and CEO of Lumaverse Technologies. Before joining the Lumaverse, Mike was the President of Education Brands at Community Brands, the CEO of Diamond Mind, and the Chief Revenue Officer at JackBe. He resides in the DC-Metro area.

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