Big mistake to avoid in appeals

I got a couple more email appeals yesterday from local organizations.  One made a big mistake that I wanted to share with you so you can avoid it.

Overall, it was a good email appeal – photo, update on a couple of accomplishments for the year, reminder that year-end gifts are due this week, link to the website for the Donate Now button… then they also asked for me to participate in an event.

It’s a huge mistake to ask for multiple things in an appeal.  You run the risk of people being torn about which thing to respond to.  Ask for one thing and one thing only.  Make it very simple and very clear what action you want the donor to take.  Otherwise, you may be disappointed with the response you get.

Sometimes you shouldn’t Ask for money

Is this a good response?

A small nonprofit serving children recently sent out their first direct mail appeal using a rented list.  Now they want to know if their results are good or not.

In May, they sent out 1492 pieces.  In April, they had been in the local news several times promoting Child Abuse Prevention Month.  So far, they’ve received 1o gifts totalling $322 dollars.  It cost them $427 to send the mailing, and their Board is concerned that they’ve lost money.

Now they’ve asked me how they’ve done.  Here’s what I said:

It sounds like you picked the best possible time to mail.  Good going on that – not everyone puts that much thought into the timing of their mailings.  The publicity before the mailing will help the performance of the mailing.

If you mailed 1492 pieces and got 10 gifts back, that’s a response rate of 0.7%.  1% is average on a mailing like this.  Your average gift size of $32 is about average for small organizations.

Overall, you did fine on this mailing compared to what other nonprofits receive on this kind of mailing.  At first blush, the response can seem dismal- after all, you lost money.  But you gained 10 new donors.  If you can keep those 10 new donors giving for the next three or four years, you will more than make your money back.

Do you have a question about direct mail?  Click on the comment link below and ask.  And don’t forget that my “Secrets of Direct Mail Mentoring Course” starts on Tuesday.  Click here to learn more or to sign up: http://www.getfullyfunded.com/directmailseries.html.

What should go on the outer envelope of your fundraising appeal?

Will you let me help you raise money through the mail?

Secrets of Direct Mail Mentoring Course

Give me 4 weeks and I’ll show you how to raise gobs of money through the mail!

I’m proud to announce a new teleseminar series that I’ll be starting July 14th.  It’s my “Secrets of Direct Mail Mentoring Course” and in it you will learn everything you need to know to raise money like the big nonprofits do.

I’m a self-proclaimed direct mail geek and proud of it!  This is my favorite technique for raising money and building relationships.  Unfortunately, so many small nonprofits try to do it without knowing how to do it well, and they are disappointed with the results they get.  So, I created this Mentoring Course to help.

In this 4-week course, you’ll learn how to:

• Choose the absolute best time to mail your fundraising letters
• Accurately estimate expenses and revenues
• Craft a compelling, effective appeal
• Choose the best mailing list
• Have a proven system for raising money through the mail that you can duplicate again and again

 

I’ll be sharing with you what I learned through trial and error over many years of raising money through the mail.

 

Here are all the details:

It’s a teleseminar format, which means you can join in from wherever you happen to be – no travel expenses!

You’ll get a downloadable workbook to follow along.

Each week you’ll get homework assignments to do before the next class.

Each session will be recorded so you can download them and listen to them anytime you want.

Plus, I’ll review and comment on a letter for you that you can use this Fall to raise money for your nonprofit! (It’ll be like having your very own direct mail Coach!)

 

The course kicks off July 14 and the size is limited (so I can keep it small and give everyone some individual attention).

The cost is just $249.  Learn more at http://www.getfullyfunded.com/directmailseries.html

I hope to see you in class on July 14th!

When is it time to kiss and say goodbye to your mailing list?

“How long should I leave people on my mailing list?”

This question came up today on a listserv I’m on and I thought I’d share my answer here with you, my favorite readers!

It’s great that you are thinking about cleaning up your database!  Too many times, people never take folks off their lists and they wind up wasting a lot of money on postage and printing.

 

Here’s what I recommend.

 

Develop a strategy to get a first gift from the 1100 prospects and a separate strategy to renew the lapsed donors.  You may have to take very different approaches with these two groups. Give them plenty of opportunities to make a gift and make sure your appeals are well-crafted and donor-centric. 

 

After a year to 15 months, if you’ve mailed to them about 4 or 5 times and they haven’t responded, I’d take them out of eTapestry   (to reduce your cost there) but keep them in an Excel file.  This lets you refer to the list again if you need to and you can use the lapsed donors list when you are mailing an acquisition package.  Sometimes deeply lapsed donors will come back around with an acquisition mailing. 

 

I would watch this list closely during acquisition to see what the response looks like before I made a decision to stop mailing to the list altogether.

Do you have something to add?  Post a comment and share!

Direct mail made easy!

If you’ve ever dipped your toe into the pool of raising money through the mail, you know it’s not as easy as it first appears.  It’s actually a complex strategy for fundraising with lots of details to think through.

There’s a new book available to help you navigate your way through a successful direct mail campaign.  Written by me and Sandra Sims, it’s called 7 Essential Steps to Raising Money by Mail.  It features an easy, step-by-step formula for crafting a successful fundraising letter, plus a swipe file of dozens of sentence starters for those times when you can’t find the right words.  It also contains over 25 real sample letters from real organizations.

The book is available as an ebook for $24 and as a paperback for $27.  Order yours here.

Tips for Writing an Appeal Letter

When it comes time to write an appeal letter, you want to do your best to be personal. Write in a conversational tone. Keep your writing simple and easy to understand (this is NOT the time to use all the big, fancy words you know!) Tell a story about someone your organization has helped. Paint a picture for your reader of how your organization is ready to make a difference in the lives of many more if their support is given.

There are some great tips in a recent post at the Bad Language Blog. Here are a few of them: Write like you speak. Use short words and short sentences.

The bottom line is to keep it simple so that your reader can easily read and understand about your organization and the work you are doing.

What determines your appeal’s success?

I’ve seen folks spend hours and hours carefully editing their fundraising letter then get frustrated when it doesn’t give them the results they want.To help you avoid that same fate, consider these factors of your appeal’s success.

The List - 40%  The list you use to mail to will make or break your appeal. After all, if you don’t mail to the right people, it doesn’t matter how good your letter is. And don’t just buy a zipcode list from the affluent section of town. People must care about your cause and be willing to respond through the mail in order to be good candidates for your direct mail appeal.

The Offer – 20%  The Ask that you make in your appeal, or your offer, will play a large part in the overall success of your appeal. Make it easy to understand, tangible, and realistic. A good offer is something like “Your gift of $23 will help us provide hot meals for a home-bound senior for a month”.

Timing – 20%  When your letter goes into the mail also plays a large part in the success of your appeal. Some months are proven to be better for mailing than others. Also think about what else you have going in the mail, like special event invitations or newsletters, and what else is happening in your community (don’t mail the sametime as the United Way kickoff or some other large nonprofit activity).

The Package - 10% The package is the envelope and all its contents as it arrives in the recipient’s mailbox. You have about 2 seconds to get the envelope opened, and how the pieces look at first glance can determine whether they get a closer look or go straight to the trash.

The Letter – 10%  The actual letter of your appeal accounts for a small part of the overall success of your appeal. No doubt it’s important to have a well-crafted letter, but don’t spend ALL your time on this one piece.

For more tips on direct mail, check out my Resources Page.

Themes for direct mail appeals and newsletters

Do you ever get stuck trying to come up with a theme for a mailing?

I’ve been there and it’s no fun.  I still get stuck every now and again trying to help clients with themes.

To help you out, I’ve put together a calendar of holidays and possible seasonal themes that you can pick from.  Get a free copy at www.getfullyfunded.com/resources.html.

If you find it helpful, come back and drop me a note.

Direct Mail Acquisition from both sides of the fence

I love direct mail.  I know, I’m odd, but hey, I’m a fundraiser and I love what works!

As a Director of Development for a growing organization, I loved using direct mail to acquire new donors.  I knew that if I had good lists and a good offer, and made sure to have stories in the media when my appeals hit, I would have good response rates.  When I worked at the local food bank, we always made money on acquisition, which is not always the case in other organizations.

As a consumer, I’m becoming a little frustrated with direct mail acquisition packages that use name labels.

I responded to a mailing (don’t remember the organization) a few months ago and I must have gotten on the “Responds to Labels” list, because now I’m inundated with labels!  I know I’ve heard this same complaint from other people over the years.

Why don’t the people who run direct mail campaigns for the nation-wide health-related charities catch a clue?  Maybe they could check to see how many times the names have been mailed to with a label package.  There has to be a better way – a more donor-centered way.

As a fundraiser, I used labels only once in acquisition and I decided I didn’t care for it.  I wasn’t getting the kind of donors I wanted, and I found other ways to meet my needs for gaining new donors.  For some reason, the use of premiums has always bothered me. I want donors to give to my organization because they care about it, not because I’ve hung some carrot out in front of them.  I don’t want them to stop giving the minute the carrot goes away. Or worse, I don’t want donors to give because they feel guilty about having received address labels in the mail.

I wonder if some organizations haven’t slipped into a rut and are just doing what they’ve always done instead of thinking of ways to do it better.  Maybe some fundraisers need a paradigm shift so they can do more thinking about donor-centered methods of raising money.

Either way, I have enough address labels to last a couple of decades.

What non-Ask mailings are you sending?

If you are running a direct mail campaign to your current donors (and you should be), you should include a few mailings that don’t contain an ask.  This helps build trust with your donors that you aren’t just always coming around with your hand out.  The last thing you want is for your donors to stop opening mail from you.

Here are some examples of things you can mail to your donors that don’t contain an Ask for money:

• Holiday card
• Valentine’s Day card
• Annual Report
• Gift Summary report for tax purposes
• Hand-written Thank You note

A carefully thought-out direct mail plan should be well spaced throughout the year and have at least two non-Ask mailings. So, what non-Ask mailings are you sending?

The best times to mail a fundraising appeal

Do you know when the best times are to mail a fundraising appeal?

Studies show that there are definitely months of the year that produce better results than others.  October is the best month to mail. Think about why that might be.  School is back in session, people are back in routines, then along comes a crisp, cool morning and our thoughts turn to the holidays.  We get jolly and in the spirit, then we get generous.

Want to know how the other months of the year stack up?  Check out the article called “Rules of Thumb for Direct Mail” on my website in the resources section.  www.sandyrees.com/resources.html