Keep Direct Mail In Your Fundraising Repertoire

I’ve never heard social media so neatly summarized as it is in the TV spot for Walmart’s Family Mobile plan. A teenage girl excitedly tells her father, “We can pin, post, tweet, snap, tag, check, and share!” Think, for a minute, about how a “family mobile plan” would have been described in the early 80s: We can call each other on our cordless landline phone and send letters through the United States Postal Service!  It sounds like a sentence from the Stone Age, doesn’t it?

Comparatively, the number of shiny new digital marketing tools at our disposal

is growing by leaps and bounds. Let’s face it, direct mail doesn’t carry the same panache as a clever Tweet, low-cost email, or “like” button. The idea of printing and mailing an Annual Fund letter belongs in #ThrowbackThursday for some folks. Many have even suggested that direct mail solicitation is “dead.” The low-cost lure of social media and the desire to stay on trend is understandably tempting. So why should you use a medium that some consider way past its prime?

The answer is simple: Direct mail remains one of the most high-leverage/high-yield fundraising opportunities available.

While social media should be an integral part of your overall marketing plan, direct mail should remain the centerpiece of your fundraising repertoire, or you’re putting your Annual Fund program at risk.  No other medium can convey the personal warmth and amplify the mission of your organization as effectively as a well-written letter. A comprehensive direct mail program is mission-critical to a fundraising campaign’s success. Are you practicing all of the direct mail fundamentals? Read this partial checklist and find out:

• Is your institution positioned as an effectively-run organization that’s enriching and supporting the community?
• Do you have a mission-based message?
• Is your segmentation strategy well-planned and executed?
• Are you testing against a control letter?
• Is the Ask stated early in the letter with confidence and passion?
• Are you sending enough letters through the course of the campaign, at the right time, to the right people?
• Is the letter well-formatted, with generous margins, a readable serif font, and sufficient length?
• Are you completing a post-campaign analysis with observations and recommendations for the next fiscal year?
• Is your direct mail program well-integrated with all of your communication platforms? 

I can hear your protests: What about the cost of direct mail solicitations? The declining response rates? The work involved in implementing the program?  And, those mounting “do not mail” requests?  

RSC says, “Keep doing the hard work to get the best results.” RSC manages entire direct mail programs for non-profit institutions, and our experience is that results are actually improving, as are the gross and net revenues for our clients.  

In contrast to the “read it now, forget about two seconds later” climate of electronic media, a well-executed direct mail program offers a more measured, paced, and longer-living solicitation that often prompts gift responses weeks, and sometimes months, after it’s been received.

As our culture continues to embrace and evolve in social media, direct mail may eventually take on a different role or level of significance. But for now, it remains among the highest-producing and cost-effective fundraising method available, and should be the anchor for your Annual Fund program.   The “pin, post, tweet, snap, tag, check, and share” tactics have a place in today’s NFP solicitation program, too – just not one of prominence.

RSC can help you create an integrated, multi-channel fundraising plan. If you’d like to learn more about the success we’ve had helping non-profit organizations build successful direct mail programs, just click here and we will be happy to follow-up. 

A Mailbox Full of Noise

You are entering the last quarter of the calendar year and your annual fund campaign is just revving up. Reviewing your tactical plan, you prepare to send a direct mail piece to every current and past donor since 1915, along with some other prospects who might respond to a “now’s the time” mailer. Warning! If you haven’t put those wheels into motion yet, RSC says, “Get it going or prepare to wait.”  Those mailboxes are about to fill up with red, white and blue solicitations and there won’t be much room left in your patrons’ mailboxes.

There's a tree in my mailbox!

You know this because you've seen it firsthand.  Every four years the national political environment pumps out so much mail that it can’t be ignored – and the frequency between mailings of postcards, letters and gift envelopes gets shorter and shorter as Election Day draws near. 

So how do other non-profits compete and rise above the noise of political mailings? RSC says, “Don’t compete.  There’s a better way.”

Nobody makes noise better or more loudly than politicians – and the more mail in the box, the noisier it gets.  So don’t even try and compete.  Your organization, no matter how blustery, will have a tough time being heard.  So instead of having your mailings get drowned out by the political noise, simply rise above it with a better plan.  Below are some tips that will pull you through the impending saturation of political noise this fall.

1)    TIME YOUR MESSAGE. REALLY frontload your campaign…beat those political mailings to the box. If you haven’t already done so, get your solicitations in the mail ASAP, with your cutoff being October 15 at the absolute latest. After that, you’d better wait until the second week of November to send any mailings.

2)    BE POSITIVE. The Post Office will soon be flooded with pushing out political mailings and sadly many of the messages will be real downers. For sure, negative messages make for negative patrons.  But hey, you work for an arts organization – upbeat, community-focused, highly-valued and worthy of support!  So, keep your messages positive, never emulating the thick, bitter sludge you might see from political mailings. Re-emphasize your organization’s importance, relevance and partnership with the communities it serves. And always steer clear of mentioning the election – doing otherwise will make your organization’s letter just part of the noise.

3)    WORK ON RELATIONSHIPS. During the last quarter of the year there are fundraising priorities that have nothing to do with direct mail.  During your self-imposed “no mail” period, focus on cultivating relationships, working on sponsorships, stewarding donors or securing that next challenge grant.

Through balance and timing, your annual fund campaign will navigate the disruptions of the election challenge. Use your energy and resources well and don’t compete with the noise. Work smart and rise above it.

If you would like to learn more about how RSC successfully helps arts and cultural organizations reach their fundraising goals, call us today at 317.300.4443 or visit our website.