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Fundraising Tuesday: The Ideal Email Appeal

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When it comes to raising money, letters in the mail (and thank-you’s in the mail) still rule. But email is coming in a close second.

Part of that is the moment. As I write this, the pandemic is still raging in the United States, and Donald Trump is still President of the United States–and for both those reasons, the post office has been strained beyond belief.

Part of it is generational. There are more donors now who grew up always using email. (Indeed, there are some for whom email is passe, and they will let hundreds of messages pile up in their inbox while at least looking at every text message they receive on their phone.)

And part of the reason email is becoming more important is that email and postal mail are not competitors. To reach your donors, get their attention, and move them to give, you need both!

Both is good

The Ideal Email Appeal

You have already seen the ideal appeal letter and the ideal thank-you letter on this blog. Now, I’d like to share what I consider to be the ideal email appeal. (Once again, I tip my hat to alert reader Joan Hill!)

From: Brendan Colthurst <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:31 AM
Subject: You helped us tell stories no one else wants to tell
To: Joan Hill

Joan, I want to share a couple of important videos our video team here at RAICES made this year, acknowledge the importance of telling stories no one else is telling, and ask you for a donation of $65 to help make sure we can continue to tell these stories and fight for immigrant human rights.

BLACK IMMIGRANT LIVES

In the summer, one of our videos made a splash, with millions of views, tens of thousands of shares, and write-ups in major publications: Our Black Immigrant Lives are Under Attack video and accompanying article. In the video we lay out horrifying fact after horrifying fact about a US immigration system that is both terrorizing and undeniably worse for Black immigrants. We believe everyone needs to know what is happening to Black immigrants in the United States.

Black immigrant

DACA

On DACA, we brought you a series of videos to both explain the legal technicalities…

Defend DACA

…and to meet DACA recipients who have been caught in the crosshairs.

DACA recipients

CELEBRATING WINS

We celebrated a moment of pure joy watching Cameroonian asylum seeker Stephane reunite with his sister after a decade apart. Like the majority of asylum seekers, he was cruelly trapped in detention for months, even though his family was waiting for him with a safe home. Thankfully our RAICES Bond Program was able to get him out.

Asylum seeker

We believe that if all Americans truly knew how America treats its immigrant community members, they’d fight like hell for immigrant human rights just like we do. That’s why we tell the stories no one else is telling.

DONATE

Whether you are giving today, already support us, or are giving in other ways, thank you. Our mission requires solidarity, vigilance, and a strong community of supporters who stand up and fight whenever and wherever human rights abuses occur.

Thank you for standing with us,
Brendan Colthurst
Chief Technology Officer
RAICES

RAICESTEXAS.ORG

EIN 74-2436920

RAICES
1305 N. Flores
San Antonio, TX 78212
United States

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Why It Works

This email from RAICES does well at every turn.

  • The “From:” line tells you it’s in the name of a single, real person.
  • The “Subject:” line you that YOU made a real difference, and how. (It also promises stories, and everyone likes to hear those!)
  • Emotional language engages the reader.
  • The email asks for money early and often, so if Joan doesn’t end up reading the whole email she may still give.
  • The Donate links are prominent and visible.
  • The photos and videos break up the “wall of text” and add visual interest to keep the reader interested. And the links lead to pages that include a call to give to RAICES.

Could this email be a little on the long side? Perhaps–if Joan weren’t already a committed supporter.

But the nonprofit knew who Joan was–she’s in their database–and they pitched their appeal to her personally. I’d bet money they sent a different email to first-time donors, and a different one to prospects!

The Next Time You Ask, Use Email

If you are not asking for money by email yet, please take some tips from this example, and start! Don't give up on postal mail, because that would be a disaster for your bottom line. But using both, in tandem, would be ideal. Share on X

 

 

Fundraising Tuesday: What Donors Think When You Mess Up their Name

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Does it really matter when you get a donor’s name wrong? Just ask the donors.

I did.

On my personal Facebook page, I put up last week’s Communicate! blog post, Fundraising Tuesday: Using Your Database to Get the Name Right. And then I asked, “I’m just curious: have YOU ever been asked for money by a group that couldn’t get your name right?”

The answers

“All the time,” said Rabab. “All the time,” said Dmitry.

“Oh yes, all the time. Mr. Lee,” said Ms. Lee.

Lauren told me, “Yep. I’ve gotten ‘Laura,’ I’ve gotten my last name spelled wrong… From people asking for money, and scams too.”

Meg said firmly, “*All* the time. I get mashups of my mother’s name (Mary Kay) and mine now too.”

Doug said, “For some reason, the DNC thinks my name is Cecil.”

From a friend whose last name is Crary: “Happens to me all the time. For some reason, my last name defies logic or something. I particularly love when it autocorrects to ‘crazy’.”

From a friend whose first name is Pam: “I get a fair number of things addressed to “Vam,” which I finally realized is what “P” looks like when I’m writing quickly.”

Marla tells me her name is now Maria. “Say it soft, and it’s almost…🙏”

Lois says, “😂 All the time. I keep an envelope of misspelled names.”

Helene says, “I’m actually amazed when they get it right.”

How does it make donors feel to be misnamed?

I said to my Facebook friends, “Thank you all!” (Because thank-you’s are almost as important as getting names right.) And I asked,  “Here’s a follow-up question for you: what would you like the organization that sent you that piece of mail to know about how you react when you see it?”

Meg: That they should hire enough staff that they have time to get things right – and pay enough to get good people.

Sandy: That I feel disrespected and treated like a commodity in such circumstances. (Especially the spelling… I don’t feel disrespected re the gender issue.)

Lois: I probably wouldn’t say it 🙂. Meg: And they’d probably attribute your opinion to Louis  anyway. Lois: If I were lucky!

Why would you ever make donors feel dissed?

wrong nameYou are out there asking donors to give you their money, in a year when many of them either lost their jobs, made a lot less, or helped their families and friends in need.

You are asking at a time when every other nonprofit in the country, and sometimes, other countries, is asking for them to give as well.

If you have done a good job up to this point, the donor understands why giving to you might make a difference toward a result they care about a lot.

Why would you spoil all that by being inattentive to their names?

Now, you might get lucky. One of my friends, Jerry, told me:

So we just received a double first name solicitation envelope [like the “Mr. Rona Dennis” envelope I received!] from a national org that we have supported for years. I decided to write to them just to see what would happen. We received an emailed apology within the hour, and they said that a data input error was the reason, and promised to fix it. I thanked them and asked if there was a way to reduce the frequency for paper mailings. They do good work, so we will still support them.

Jerry and his wife are forbearing and forgiving. Not everyone is equally kind, or patient. Do you really want to test your donor’s capacity to put up with insults? Do you really want to push good donors away from you like that, or wouldn’t you rather bring them closer?

It’s not so hard. Just be sure to get the names right. Jerry, Meg, Lois, Sandy, Helene, Marla, Pam, Laura, Doug, Lauren, Lee, Rabab, Dmitry, and I are all here to tell you: it makes all the difference in the world.

 

 

Fundraising Tuesday: Using Your Database to Get the Name Right

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My wife’s name is Rona. My name is Dennis.

There is no one at our household whose name is “Mr. Rona Dennis.”

Yet that is the person the United Way is asking for money.

Why it’s crucial to get the name right

no recyclingAs a nonprofit fundraiser, when I see a mistake like the one the United Way made, I shudder. Why? Because I know that the average donor will see that envelope and throw it away.

If you mail an envelope to the wrong name, it's like mailing it to the wrong address. It will never be seen. Share on X

People’s names matter to them. It’s vital to get the name right. If you mess up on the name, you are saying to the donor, “I have no idea who you are, and I don’t care. You don’t matter to me: only your check.”

In fact, your nonprofit needs to know not only the donor’s name, but what they like to be called. Am I Mr. Dennis Fischman? Dennis Fischman? Dennis? Or something else?

Even a dear friend letter will get tossed, unread. But that’s presuming the donor has actually opened the envelope to see the salutation. If the name on the envelope is wrong, whoosh! Into the recycling bin it goes, no matter if you wrote the ideal appeal letter and tucked it inside.

How to make sure you get the name right

The best way to know what the person likes to be called is to ask. Then, you have to make sure to enter the correct information into the database. But you have to enter it into the correct fields, too.

Look again at what the United Way did. I’d bet they meant to place “Rona” in a Donor 1 field and “Dennis” in a Donor 2. Or else, they meant to put “Rona and Dennis” in the First Name field and “Fischman” in the last name. (It depends how their database is set up.)

Instead, though, someone put “Rona” in the First Name, then skipped to the next field, Last Name, and put “Dennis.” They didn’t double-check, and they didn’t ask themselves where “Fischman” was supposed to go. Enter the street address, city, state, and zip. On to the next set of data to enter!

You can do better than that.

Just take an extra moment before you save the entry to double-check it.

Otherwise, the recycle bin is waiting!

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