You are here: Home / Direct Mail

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

July 2, 2009 By Sandy

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!

    Filed Under: Direct Mail

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

    March 20, 2009 By Sandy

    “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!

    Filed Under: Direct Mail Tagged With: ,

    Direct mail made easy!

    December 23, 2008 By Sandy

    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.

    Filed Under: Direct Mail Tagged With: , ,
    « Older Posts
    Newer Posts »