Your fundraising appeal contains an offer, just as a direct response marketing letter has an offer to sell its product. Whether a letter asks people to contribute to this year’s annual fund campaign or to buy an upgrade to their software, the dynamic is the same — accept the offer, send money, obtain the benefits. Read More...
When you mail your next fundraising appeal, you probably will have spent hours looking at it, maybe even writing and editing it and asking other people for their opinion. You may have looked at the artwork so much that you no longer even noticed it. By the time the letter went into the mail, you were so well-acquainted with it, you were glad it was out the door. Read More...
Many organizations believe they’re too small to establish a direct mail fundraising program. The truth is, most organizations start small and grow through a strategy that is effective and well thought out. That strategy almost always involves direct mail fundraising. Read More...
There’s probably no more widely known or acknowledged aphorism in fundraising than the very basic “people give to people,” with the obvious implication, “people give to people they like.” In our experience — now 40 years’ worth — we see that it applies to direct mail as well. Read More…
In a previous post (National Donor Survey Part 6, in the April archives), we reported that a resounding 87.6% of those likely to open fundraising letters expressed a preference for letters that are “brief and to the point.” Read More...
When we surveyed self-identified charitably minded people for our National Donor Survey, we found a desire for accountability, one every nonprofit should pay attention to since baby boomers are big on accountability, and that generation will soon be the source of most of their donors. A number of those taking the survey (7%) mentioned accountability when we asked them to name “one thing” they would do to improve fundraising letters. Their responses often showed that efforts over the years have been successful in establishing the difference between program and administrative costs in the minds of donors. Read More...
When we surveyed self-identified charitably minded people recently in our National Donor Survey, we not only received answers to our survey questions, but we asked those responding to name “one thing” they’d do to improve fundraising letters. I’m going to include some of their comments in coming posts, but here’s a summary. Read More...
The “thank you” programs for nonprofits didn’t receive good reviews on our recent National Donor Survey of self-identified charitably minded people. According to the donors we surveyed, about a quarter of them never got a thank you for their last charitable gift. Read More…
Donors often say they don’t like the personalized address labels that almost every nonprofit mails, and we heard those sentiments expressed in our recent National Donor Survey of self-identified, charitably minded individuals across the nation. In fact, labels were singled out in a negative way in individual comments, such as “Address labels annoy me” and “I don’t like address labels.” Within the survey, labels were the least likely element of a package to encourage response among those likely to open a fundraising letter. See the chart below. Read More...
Our recent National Donor Survey of self-identified, charitably minded people confirmed an important change in giving from 20-30 years ago — that of the influence of baby boomers. When asked what kind of letter donors would prefer to receive, one that focused on “donor impact” won out over one with a focus on “the need for help” — although the two issues are very close considering the frequency error. See the chart below. Read More...
I have over 30 years experience in fundraising and direct mail. I'm the President and manage the Fund Raising Division for Zachry Associates www.zachyinc.com. I am available for speaking arrangements.
