The year-end fundraising appeal for the Harrison Center takes a lot of work. It’s not just composing the letter — a single, double-sided page about the Indianapolis group’s accomplishments and new projects. It’s also creating an eye-catching envelope and ensuring the piece makes supporters feel special.
The letter has helped the nonprofit increase its year-end donations. In 2013, the first year it started its direct-mail appeals, it raised almost $53,000. The mailing brought in $79,000 last year and so far has raised $70,000 in 2017.
The back of the envelopes for this year’s letters — which were designed by a printmaker resident at the Harrison Center and were mailed in November — were an artistic interpretation of a map of the nonprofit’s neighborhood: A star on the map marks where the Harrison Center sits.
About 5,000 people received the letters this year, and Joanna Taft, the center’s executive director, tailored about 2,100 of the solicitations for people she knows personally or by reputation. She underlined parts of the text she thought the donor would find particularly interesting or appealing. She also made notes in the margins or at the end of the letter — or wrote exclamations like “Yay!” about some of the center’s achievements.
For those people on the mailing list Ms. Taft doesn’t know, interns mark the letters following a template she draws up for underlining and notations. The process takes about a month.
Why do this? “We know they’re not going to read the entire letter,” Ms. Taft says. The highlighted sections make it easier for donors to skim what they care about most — and gives people the sense that the nonprofit, which has three full-time employees, understands its supporters.
“We are known for our letter,” Ms. Taft says. “I run into people all the time who talk about our letter and how much they appreciate the time that we put into it.”
Mail Still Matters
The Harrison Center’s experience shows that when mailings are unique or part of a thoughtful campaign, they can still bring in big money, even though so many appeals are digital. Mail “is not flashy and exciting, but it’s the main engine that drives fundraising,” says Kerri Kerr, chief operating officer at the Avalon Consulting Group, which helps nonprofits with their fundraising campaigns.
Some donors prefer digital appeals, but that doesn’t make mail obsolete, says Mike Lamma, vice president for development and field management at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. His charity’s digital revenue has starting to eclipse income from direct mail in recent years, he notes, but mail is still important to a wide swath of donors.
“A segment of our donor base prefers a mailed end-of-year appeal, and the response is strong enough to continue to meet that need and ensure our message is received by those who consistently support us,” Mr. Lamma said in an email to The Chronicle.
The more personal direct-mail appeals are, the better, Ms. Kerr says. When possible, the letter should read like “you’re reaching out to this single donor and talking to them — thanking them for what their gift made possible in the past year, encouraging them to consider being a part of your organization”, Ms. Kerr says.
Other experts concur, saying that nonprofits should keep updating their mailing strategies, test what work best, and be sure to integrate their mailers with digital appeals.
The Chronicle asked nonprofits about direct mail they’re sending in the 2017 holiday season. Their strategies and tactics may spark ideas for other nonprofits.
Print and Online
Nonprofits should tell stories that highlight the organization’s work, Ms. Kerr says. If that can be done both online and in print, even better.
The Humane Society of the United States, for instance, sent a letter in early December that featured Violet, a dog the organization rescued in Louisiana that was “in extremely poor health and could barely stand.”
“Today, Violet is getting a second chance at life,” the letter says.
Donors who received the letter also got an email about Violet this week, with links to a video of her being rescued and rehabilitated.
That’s because much of the organization’s year-end fundraising comes from digital donors, but it’s likely that direct-mail substantially increases online donations, says Geoff Handy, senior vice president for marketing and communications. The organization ran a test in 2015 that showed that online donations jump 40 percent more when donors receive a mailer as well as digital appeals. “We know the lift [mail] provides at the end of the year is significant,” Mr. Handy says.
That’s often an overlooked part of snail mail, says Ms. Kerr. “A good portion of your file, when they get direct mail, is going to go online and check you out,” she says. Nonprofits’ websites, she added, should be updated with information about their holiday drives and their missions at year-end.
Gift Matches
Many nonprofits are also touting matching gifts in their letters during the holidays.
Bread for the City, a Washington charity, sent a mailing in October promoting a $50,000 match for its Holiday Helpings campaign — which aims to provide more than 8,000 holiday turkey meals to low-income people.
The letter explains the math: “That means $25 from you will be matched dollar for dollar to become a $50 donation, $50 will double to $100, and a $100 gift would provide $200 worth of holiday help and hope to D.C. residents.”
The reply slip included with the direct-mail letter reminds supporters of the match again. The note contains several boxes for donors to check with dollar amounts ranging from $25 to $250. Underneath each box, the dollar figures are doubled.
“For every direct-mail, we want to use a match,” says Andrea Messina, chief development officer, noting that the organization is also promoting matching gifts through email and social media. “It just makes clear what the impact is.”
Tying Matches to Mission
Donors need to understand what their donation is paying for, even with a matching-gift promotion. “The matching gift alone is worthless if you don’t have a strong case for support,” Ms. Kerr says. “Why should they care that their $50 will be doubled to $100?”
The Union of Concerned Scientists tried to closely tie its matching-gift promotion to its mission of protecting and promoting science in its year-end appeal letters to donors.
Its challenge fund will sponsor memberships for emerging scientists and leaders for each member who chooses to give more, new members who join, or lapsed members who haven’t given for a while but decide to rejoin — up to $1.5 million until the end of the year.
In a letter mentioning the match to members who give under $1,000 each year, the organization noted that in 2017 it “stood strong against the Trump administration’s attacks on science,” “secured bipartisan support for clean energy in the Midwest,” and “published groundbreaking scientific research,” among other things.
Toward the end of the three-page letter, it says: “Despite the odds being against us, we had great success in 2017. And I know with your continued support, we can achieve even greater success in the year ahead.”
“People are always looking to increase their impact,” says Laurie Marden, the group’s chief development officer, about the matching gift.
Fewer Mailings
For the Union of Concerned Scientists, sending fewer mailings has been effective, too. The group reduced the number of mailings asking for money that it sends toward the end of the year from about four to one — though donors who give different amounts get letters with slightly different language and at different times. The move is part of a larger effort to trim the number of solicitation letters it sends throughout the year.
Fewer mailings haven’t led to a drop in revenue during the holidays, says Ms. Marden. In fact, fundraising dollars increased 33 percent last year in the holiday period — though she suspects much of the growth was due to supporters’ anxiety over Donald Trump’s election to the presidency and the possible changes he would bring about in science funding and policy making.
To Ms. Marden, acknowledging donors’ past gifts and highlighting important aspects of the group’s mission is just as important as asking for money during the holidays. Two other mailings it sends late in the year — a quarterly magazine and an annual report that lays out the organization’s achievements — don’t ask for gifts.
Says Ms. Marden, “It’s really important that we thank our donors for what we’ve already been able to achieve together before we’re asking them to re-up for the next year.”
