Raiser Sharpe Tips » Newsletters, donor

Five Indisputable Laws of Direct Mail Donor Acquisition

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:49:55 +0000

I am not a prophet, I am not the son of a prophet, but I do serve on the board of a non-profit. And I’ve discovered through the years that charities who succeed at acquiring donors through the mail obey five immutable laws of direct mail fundraising. These laws aren’t carved in stone. But they should be.

Law #1: You Will Mail at Least One Campaign a Year
The only way to consistently grow your donor database and increase your revenue is to acquire new donors every year. If you go a year without mailing a donor acquisition package, you will experience a drop in current donors, a drop in new donors, and a drop in revenue.

Law #2: You Will Establish a Control Package
The key to success in direct mail donor acquisition is to acquire as many donors as possible at the lowest cost. The key is to establish as quickly as possible which direct mail package generates these results for you. Mail different packages to the same lists and see which package pulls in the most donors for the lowest cost. The winner becomes your control package. Mail that control package every year, and test other packages against it (test letter length, case for support, premiums, package design, inserts and so on), until a test package eventually outperforms your control package. Some control packages are so successful they are still in the mail after a decade.

Law 3: You Will Test Lists
The most important factor in your success at acquiring donors through the mail is not what you mail or when you mail but who you mail. You can mail a terrific letter to a lousy list and it will bomb. You can mail a mediocre letter to a terrific list and it can deliver acceptable results. The only way to discover which lists generate the most donors at the lowest cost is to test lists.

Law #4: You Will Interpret Your Results Correctly
Don’t get distracted by your Average Gift, Response Rate, Net Income, Cost Per Piece or Cost to Raise a Dollar. The only number that matters in acquiring new donors with paper and postage is Net Cost Per Donor Acquired.

Calculate your Net Cost Per Donor Acquired by dividing your net income (income minus expenses) by the number of donors acquired.

The biggest mistake you can make is thinking that a donor acquisition mailing is a failure if it loses money. Direct mail donor acquisition mailings almost always lose money. But they gain donors. The key metric is not how much money you gained or lost, but how much money you had to spend to acquire each new donor. Don’t look at costs, but cost-effectiveness.

Law #5: You Will Focus on Lifetime Value
You can acquire hundreds of thousands of donors cost-effectively every year but still fail at donor acquisition. That’s because the success of each acquisition campaign depends on how many new donors go on to make a second gift, a third gift, a fourth gift (you get the idea), and how many of these same new donors eventually increase their giving, join your monthly giving program, contribute to your capital campaigns, give a major gift and leave a legacy in their wills.

The key to donor retention, subsequent gifts and increased lifetime value is stewardship. Thank your new donors promptly (with a thank-you letter), welcome them to your organization (with a welcome kit), demonstrate how their gift is making a difference (with a donor newsletter), and ask them for a second gift (with a fundraising letter) sooner rather than later.

Learn More
Read Mail Superiority: How to Run a Profitable Annual Direct Mail Fundraising Program.

Need help?
If you need help acquiring donors through the mail, give me a call at Harvey McKinnon Associates, at (416) 537-2904 ext. 212

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How to Get a Second Gift from a New Direct Mail Donor

Alan Sharpe — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:05:47 +0000

If your charity is at all typical, you will lose 65% of the donors you acquire by direct mail in the first year alone.

In other words, only 35% of the donors you acquire through direct mail will give you a second gift. Most donors acquired through the mail are acquired at a net loss (you must spend money to acquire each donor), so you can see how important it is for you to do all that you can to encourage first-time donors to give again.

Here are the main reasons new donors do not give a second gift:

1. You acquire the wrong kind of donor
Donors acquired with premiums, trinkets and lotteries tend to fall away at a higher rate than donors acquired with a simple ask.

2. You ignore them
If you do not thank your new donors soon enough, or tell them what you are doing with their gift, or welcome them to your organization, they will not likely mail you a second gift.

3. You write them too often
If all you do with new donors is add them to your mailing list and then bombard them with an appeal letter each month, you will likely lose them.

4. You do not ask again soon enough
The key to securing a second gift is to ask early and ask often. Your enemy is the calendar. For every week that elapses after you have received the donor’s first gift, and where you do not ask for a second gift, your chances of losing your newly acquired donor increase. The worst thing you can do is delay four, five, six months or longer before going back to your new donor for a second gift. By that time, many will have forgotten that they even made the first gift.

To increase your percentage of new donors who go on to give a second gift, do four things:

1. Thank them promptly, personally and particularly for their first gift.

2. Send them a welcome kit. Tell them why they are a valuable part of your organization. Include anything in the welcome kit (brochure, newsletter, welcome letter, FAQs, testimonials) that draws donors closer to your mission and the people you help.

3. Show them how you are using their gift to change the world. You can do this most effectively with a donor-centred newsletter filled with pictures and stories that show donor dollars at work.

4. Ask for a second gift within eight weeks of receiving the first gift. The single largest factor in determining if you receive a second gift is how long you wait before asking for it. The longer you wait, the less likely you are to secure that all-important second donation.

Learn More
Read Mail Superiority: How to Run a Profitable Annual Direct Mail Fundraising Program.

Need help?
If you need help acquiring, renewing or upgrading direct mail donors, give me a call at Harvey McKinnon Associates, at (416) 537-2904 ext. 212

Twenty Postal Strike Survival Tips for Charities and Non-Profits

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:04:50 +0000

What should you do if your charity raises money through the mail but your country’s postal workers are about to strike, or are already on strike?

Naturally, you’re troubled.

Most charities in Canada that are not places of worship raise a substantial portion of their operating budget using fundraising letters. Many charities also rely on the mail to recruit new donors, keep their donors up to date with newsletters, invite donors to special events, conduct donor surveys, and issue charitable tax receipts and thank-you letters. So a strike by postal workers isn’t just an inconvenience. It threatens a charity’s very existence.

Here are some ways to survive a postal strike.

In the weeks before the postal workers go on strike, write to your donors. Tell them that a strike is imminent, and give the anticipated strike date if possible.
Describe how the strike will affect your donors’ ability to communicate with you, and your ability to communicate with your donors, by mail.
Warn your donors to expect delays in receiving their gift acknowledgement letters, since their mail gifts, and you thank-you letters, will likely be delayed in the mail system.
If the labour action involves rotating strikes in cities across the country rather than a nationwide general strike, warn your donors to still expect delays, since the location and duration of each strike is unpredictable.
Give your donors a way to keep current on the status of the strike by showing them where to sign up for email bulletins, text alerts and media releases issued by the postal labour union and the postal service. Direct donors to the websites of each party in the strike.
Encourage your donors to make their donations using other methods, such as email, phone, online, text and in person.
Before the strike begins, make contingency plans for sending your appeals by email, provided you have the technical ability and sufficient email addresses to do so profitably.
If you are going to solicit gifts during the strike by email, write to donors whose email addresses you do not have on file, and invite them to give you their email addresses. Give donors an incentive, such as a gift certificate, for doing so (you’ll acquire more addresses this way).
If you anticipate that the strike will be prolonged, consider phoning your high-value donors and asking for a gift. Mention the impact of the strike and encourage them to either phone your charity or give online. Do this throughout the duration of the strike.
If you anticipate that the strike will be prolonged, write to your donors before the strike and invite them to join your monthly giving program. If some are reluctant, invite them to give a gift each month, however small, for the duration of the strike only. Stress your need for daily funds to continue helping the people you serve.
Before the strike begins, invite your most frequent and generous donors to mail you a series of post-dated cheques.
Before the strike begins, invite your donors to add your charity as an Internet banking payee so that they can donate to your cause when they pay their bills online.
Ramp up your homepage so that it makes a clear, compelling request for donations (perhaps even mentioning your inability to receive donations in the mail, and stressing the need for visitors to donate online or by phone instead).
Revise your Twitter homepage so that it stresses your need for funds during the strike, and then solicit donations in some of your tweets.
Post a provocative, viral video on YouTube that shows the predicament your charity will be in if you stop receiving gifts during the postal strike. Make a strong request for funds, and direct viewers to your donation page, or even better, to a special landing page dedicated to the strike.
Post regular status updates to your Facebook page so that your fans, friends, donors, advocates, members and everyone else is reminded regularly of your need for funds.
While the strike is on, email your gift acknowledgement letters, charitable gift receipts, newsletters and special event invitations.
If your charity has to cancel a fundraising event because of the postal strike, host the event online instead as a creative, fun, tongue-in-cheek non-event. (“Our Black Tie Non-Event will NOT take place on (date). Cocktails will NOT be served at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will NOT be served at 7 p.m. NO program will be held at 8:30 p.m.)
When the strike is over, and you have a backlog of gift acknowledgement letters to mail, mention in each letter that you are sorry for the delay in thanking the donor.
When the strike is over, don’t be tempted to persuade as many donors as possible to start giving online instead of by mail. The majority of today’s donors prefer the mail. Gifts made by email and online still make up less than 10% of the revenue for most charities in North America.

The One Question Your Donor Newsletter Must Answer

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:33:05 +0000

Your donors expect something from your donor newsletter that they don’t expect from their daily newspaper or cable news show.

Yes, your supporters read your newsletter and the newspaper to discover what’s new, what’s going on, what’s current. They read to be better informed, to understand the issues better.

But your donors have one question they want answered when they read your newsletter, and it’s not a question they ask of any other media. Their question is this: “What have you done with my money?”

Answer this question well and you’ll keep your supporters. Answer it poorly, or not at all, and you’ll watch your donors fall away.

Don’t be fooled into thinking your donor newsletter has to present news only. That’s what newspapers do. That’s what your communications department would do if it had its way. But your publication’s primary purpose isn’t news: it’s stewardship. And you prove that stewardship through news.

Unlike newspapers and magazines, you have a moral obligation to your reader to show what you’ve done with her money. Your donors support your organization because they want to change the world. They’ve decided to do that through you rather than another charity.

Which means your supporters demand that you show them how their donations have made a difference. They don’t want to read about your latest committee. They’re not interested in Bob’s promotion. Or that a group went to the local bowling alley and a good time was had by all.

“How did you use my donation?” That’s what your supporters want to know. So show them. Tell them. Use vivid photos, stirring testimonials, gripping narratives and donor-centred stories to prove (as though you’re the CEO reporting to your shareholders) that you have used your donor’s gift to improve the world. Show proof.

What you need before you write any newsletter story is not a good hook or a great photo or a message from your executive director delivered before you go to press. What you need is evidence. Concrete evidence. Evidence that would persuade a jury of your peers in a court of law that you invested your donor’s donation prudently and that it generated a return on investment in lives changed.

I recommend you draw a picture of a jail cell and tape it to your monitor. Stare at it before you write any story. Imagine a group of your donors ready to press charges unless you answer the one question they demand from you. Then start writing.

Learn more
Read Lucrative Donor Newsletters. Learn how to create, write, design and distribute donor newsletters that recruit supporters, renew donors, retain members, inspire action, build community and raise funds.

Is Your Fundraising Copy Silly? Take this Test and Find Out

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:50:21 +0000

Do you consider yourself a comic? Your donors might. If you are at all typical, you have let these two silly words steal their way into your copy, rendering it ridiculous. But take out your scissors, remove these offending articles, and your writing will become clear, concise and compelling.

DIFFERENT
This word is useful when used properly. But it makes you look harebrained when you use it to modify a noun that is, by definition, different from others in its class.

For example, when you tell your donors that your charity “operates in 11 different countries,” you are stating the obvious and being redundant. Of course 11 countries are different. They are countries. All countries are different. That’s why they all have different names, different flags, different constitutions, different borders. They are different.

You make the same mistake when you say, “we painted our boardroom three different colours.” Of course they were different colours. All colours are different.

Remove the word “different’ from every phrase in your writing where it modifies a noun that is already different from others in its class and your donors will notice the, well, difference.

VERY
When you write that “cancer is very painful” or that the elderly in your community are “very lonely,” you add one adjective but zero meaning. The word “very” adds nothing measurable to the meaning of the word it modifies.

What, for example, is the difference between a building that is “tall” and another that is “very tall?” Nothing measurable. In what way is a “very sick” person more sick than a “sick person?” None that anyone can describe merely from the word “very.”

So stop writing “very.” Instead, use a noun that makes your point. If the building is very tall, call it a skyscraper. If the medical condition is very painful, say it is excruciating.

Good Donor Newsletter Photos Arouse Curiosity

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:37:22 +0000

A good photograph in a donor newsletter arouses curiosity. If you have a photo of your Executive Director receiving an oversized check from the local Rotary President, that photo will not arouse curiosity. It will stimulate a yawn in many of your readers.

The same goes for the shot of your Campaign Chair cutting the inaugural ribbon outside the new building. Donors have seen that, they’ve done that, they’ve worn the flip-flops.

You need to give your donors something interesting to look at followed by something compelling to read. And when you do that, they will give you their donations. You have to arouse their curiosity.

In the photo above, you’re looking at an example of an ideal photo. This man is Mike Weaver. First of all, who is Mike Weaver? We don’t know. You have to read the article to find out. And I’m curious about Mike Weaver.

The article says “Big Man, Big Heart.” I can see that he’s a big man, but in what way does he have a big heart? I don’t know. My curiosity is aroused. The subhead says “Mike Weaver Proves God is Taking Résumés.” What does that mean: God is taking résumés? That’s an interesting way to put that.

Mike is high-fiving some children, and one of the boys on the left hand side is wearing a kind of cap, the kind of hat that they wear in Peru. There’s also a man in the background, on the left hand side, wearing one of those hats too and one of the ponchos they wear in Peru. So I’m thinking “Oh, this photo looks like it was
taken in Peru.

These children are all happy. Mike is from North America and he’s visiting. But why are they smiling? Why are they giving him high-fives?” It arouses my curiosity in a really positive way.

Arouse curiosity with your donor newsletter photos and your donors will read your articles, be inspired by your mission, and continue supporting your cause.

Learn more

Read Lucrative Donor Newsletters.
Learn how to create, write, design and distribute donor newsletters that recruit supporters, renew donors, retain members, inspire action, build community and raise funds. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/ygx67e6

Use Your Donor Newsletter to Acquire Donors

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:19:06 +0000

Your donor newsletter doesn’t have to be something that you mail to people after they give you a donation. If your newsletter, business model and board of directors allow it, you can use your newsletter as a way to acquire donors. An excellent example is a magazine called Vim & Vigor. It’s 8.5′ x 11”, full color, and actually looks like a magazine. It’s perfectly bound and looks like it could be sitting on the shelf right next to Cosmopolitan at the cash out in a supermarket.

If you look at a recent issue, in the top right hand corner, the subhead says “Touching the Hearts and Health of Our Community, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation.” This is a hospital in the city of London, Ontario. This is a magazine
that gets mailed to people in the community who are donors, and also to those who have shown interest in supporting the organization but have not given a gift yet. You can see a sample of this newsletter/magazine at http://tinyurl.com/ygx67e6. Click the link for Chapter 1.

How long do you leave a contact on a mailing list before removing them? For example, if someone’s been on the mailing list since the inception of the ministry but they’ve never had any contact with monetary support. That’s up to
you. You have to decide if you’re using your newsletter to minister to people.

Some organizations will send a newsletter to people as long as they ask to receive it. Other organizations might be more fiscally responsible and decide they’re not in the business of just giving away information. They need to be responsible with the money they have and so they’ll keep a person on for a year or so and then send them a letter asking “Do you wish to continue receiving our newsletter? Yes or No.” And if they either don’t hear from them or get an answer in the negative, then they take them off the list. But you can do that every year. You can mail a letter to your newsletter subscribers, asking them “Do you wish to continue receiving this newsletter?” And you can clean up your list that way.

Your Donor Newsletter Has Just One Reader

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:06:50 +0000

When you write your donor newsletter stories, do you write to one reader at a time? One person writing to another? Or do you make the common newsletter mistake of writing from “us” to “them?”

Direct mail donors are individuals. They donate as individuals. And they read your newsletters as individuals. If you want your newsletter stories to inspire them to donate again, you must write to them as individuals. And write as a human being.

For example, does the following paragraph sound like it was written by a human being or a committee?

“The new Rehabilitation and Geriatric Research Centre will enable fulfillment of the existing potential of the research groups to be local, provincial and national leaders in the areas of rehabilitation and geriatric medicine.”

When your donor reads a sentence like that, she expects to hear a voice saying, “Your call is important to us. Please wait for the next available agent.” Writing like that lacks warmth, lacks colour, lacks humanity. That’s why your donor won’t read it. Not for long, anyway.

Give your donor the choice between deciphering what “enable fulfillment of the existing potential” means or watching Coronation Street to see if Vera and Jack Duckworth have another row and I know which choice will prevail over your donor.

I’m not saying your newsletters need to read like a scene from a soap opera. I’m just saying your newsletters need to speak to your readers one at a time. Here are some tips on making your articles, columns and reports speak to each reader (each donor, that is) as an individual.

1. Avoid formal language
Avoid bureaucratese and institutionalese. Don’t say “the species under investigation exhibited a one-hundred percent positive mortality response” when you can instead say, “the seals died.”

2. Write in a colloquial style
Don’t talk about your leadership as “the hospital management.” Talk instead of “Hospital Chairman Brad Phillips and his team.”

3. Write about people using their first names
Don’t call a client of yours Mrs. Yamadija when you can call her Sonjay. First names are informal. Last names and titles are formal.

4. Avoid high-falutin’ mumbo-jumbo
Consider this phrase from a donor newsletter: “This new environment will facilitate synergy.” What does this mean? The writer knows. Maybe. Your typical donor does not. Enough said.

You might be interested in…

Mail Superiority.
Learn the proven, step-by-step process for raising funds and friends cost effectively, year after year.

And don’t pass up…

Handbook Number 1

53 Simple Ways to Raise More Money with Your Donor Newsletter.
Learn how to strike the profitable balance between informing and asking.

Handbook Number 3
51 Ways to Write Original Donation Thank-You Letters.
Profit by crafting original gift acknowledgement letters.

Donor Newsletters: Show the Person Behind the Story, and the Story Behind the Person

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:43:42 +0000

The quickest way to improve your donor newsletters is to start seeing your world in story form. Behind every person there is a story. And behind every story there is a person. Your job is to uncover both. Your donors want to read about people, not projects. So write about people. Show photographs of people. Let me give you an example of what to avoid.

In the May 2006 issue of its donor newsletter, a non-profit retirement home gives an update on its building project. The headline for the article is, you guessed it: “Building Update.”

The first sentence reads: “Everything on site is proceeding well.”

The story is accompanied by eight full-color photos. One shows a half-built wall. One shows the inside of the building, under construction, with building supplies and debris everywhere, and some scaffolding in the foreground. Another is an aerial shot showing a dumpster covered with a tarpaulin. Only one photo has a person in it. And he has his back to the camera (and the donor reading the article).

There is not a single photo caption anywhere on the page to describe what the reader is seeing. Which is probably just as well. What can you say about a stack of drywall to inspire your donors?

The second paragraph of the article says, “There are many players involved in managing a project of this magnitude: the Board of Directors, Building Committee, Design Committee, Finance Committee, Administration, Consultants, MOH, MOL and the Town of ______.”

The article doesn’t get any better after that, I am sorry to report.

Your donors will not read an article like that. They have no interest in committees. They are not motivated by photographs of excavations or insulation contractors. Your donors want to read about people. To publish a successful newsletter, one that cultivates your donors and gets them enthusiastic about your cause and the people you help, you must give your donors what they want. Behind every story, even a story about a building project under way, there are people. Tell their story and you will inspire your donors to fund your cause and tell others about you. Here’s what I mean.

On my desk is the summer 2007 issue of a non-profit organization’s donor newsletter. It features a story about a young man attending Queen’s University. Nothing unusual about that, right? David is taking engineering. Big deal, right? Except that behind this young man is a story. David has autism.

The headline reads: “Following His Dream: David’s pursuit of an engineering degree despite his autism.” I would have phrased that: “Following His Dream: David pursues an engineering degree despite his autism.” But never mind . . .

The opening is riveting: “There was never any question that our son would go to university. The question was how.” The story goes on to say: “David has no difficulty understanding complex scientific theories, but he couldn’t cross a busy street on his own.”

Compelling stuff! How can a young man with autism possibly take a full course load and end his year with an 82 average? You have to read the story to find out. I did.

Behind David there is a story. The editors found it and told it. It moved me. Behind the story of the building update there are people. The editors didn’t hunt for them. Can you guess which organization would get my next donation?

You might be interested in…

Handbook Number 15
Increase Your Income and Boost Donor Loyalty with Donor-Centered Newsletter Stories.
Reap the long-term benefits of putting donors first in your donor newsletters.

Handbook Number 25
Testimonials.
Find, feature and format other people’s words to overcome donor skepticism, prove your point, build trust and attract donations.

The Fundraisers’ Book of Quotations.
Inspire and motivate your donors with over 2,700 quips, proverbs, aphorisms, witticisms, zingers, epigrams, quotes, one-liners and words of wisdom from actors, writers, activists, philanthropists, artists, scientists, philosophers, poets, humorists, novelists, inventors, journalists, kings, queens, magnates, presidents, dissidents, preachers, paupers and others, famous and infamous, living and dead.

Boost Donor Newsletter Readership with Great Photos

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:16:45 +0000

Your fundraising newsletter will attract more readers, raise more funds and retain more donors when you publish outstanding photographs.

Photographs are the most important images you can feature in your donor newsletter. Good photos make your newsletter pages more interesting. They help your non-profit organization communicate immediately who you are and what you do and who you help. Photos, more than any other element, help you distinguish one issue of your newsletter from another.

Readers tend to look at photos first, then headlines, then photo captions, then the article. Which means your photographs must grab the attention of your readers. Here’s how to recognize a great photo when you see one (or take one).

The photo has people in it
People give to people to help people. So publish newsletter photos with people in them. If your article is about ending the destruction of Canada’s boreal forest, and your photo depicts a section of clearcut forest, put a volunteer in the picture, witnessing the destruction. If your article is about the 100 new beds your hospital just purchased with donated funds, don’t take a photo of a bed. Take a photo of a bed with a patient in it, or a donor in it, smiling, if possible.

The photo has action
The best pictures tend to be action-packed. A protester is yelling outside the Japanese Embassy in Washington to save whales. A donor is running to find a cure for breast cancer. Capture action with your camera and you will capture readers with your newsletter articles.

The photo arouses curiosity
A photo of your executive director receiving an oversized cheque from the local Rotary Club president won’t arouse curiosity, but a yawn. Same goes for the shot of your campaign chair cutting the inaugural ribbon. Seen that. Done that. Worn the flip flop.

Publicity expert Joan Stewart (a former newspaper editor) will tell you that journalists and editors hate those kinds of publicity photos because they are overdone. They aren’t original. So borrow a tip from The Ellen DeGeneres Show. When Ellen hurt her back, she went on with her show anyway, but from a hospital bed that they wheeled onto the studio stage. She interviewed her guests from underneath a down comforter, propped up by pillows, in front of a live studio audience. Set up similar photo opportunities with your volunteers, donors and constituents and you are guaranteed to arrest the attention of your readers.

Give your readers something interesting to look at, followed by something compelling to read, and they will give you their donations.

You might also be interested in…

Handbook Number 1
53 Simple Ways to Raise More Money with Your Donor Newsletter.
Learn how to strike the profitable balance between informing and asking.

Handbook Number 7
18 Places to Find New Donors Using Fundraising Letters.
The professional fundraiser’s guide to creative and cost-effective donor acquisition.

Handbook Number 22
How to Recover Your Lapsed Direct Mail Donors.
Discover the financial rewards, savings and long-term benefits of wooing and winning your donors all over again using direct mail.

41 Things You Can Mail to Donors in Direct Mail Fundraising

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:49:54 +0000

Want to learn a lesson in direct mail fundraising from Winston Churchill? He once observed that a fanatic is “someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

A fundraising letter fanatic, of course, is someone who thinks the only thing you can mail a donor is a fundraising letter. But that’s just one of more than 40 things you can mail to make friends and raise funds using paper and postage.

Acquisition package: Designed to attract new donors.
Welcome kit: An assortment of informational pieces and a cover letter, mailed to first-time donors, welcoming them to your organization and your cause.
Thank-you letter: The most important letter in direct mail fundraising, and it should never ask for a gift.
Renewal letter: Designed to persuade last year’s donors to renew their support again this year.
Member renewal letter: Mailed by member-based organizations to members whose membership is about to expire and must be renewed.
Reminder letter: Mailed a few weeks after your appeal letter, encouraging donors who have not responded to give. Popular at year-end.
Lapsed donor recovery letter: Mailed to donors who have not given a gift in 12 months or more, inviting them back on the train.
Monthly donor conversion letter: Mailed to annual donors (those who respond to your annual appeals), inviting them to join (convert to) your monthly giving program.
Special appeal: Mailed during the year to raise funds for a special cause, often an emergency, such as a natural disaster.
Year-end appeal: Letter that capitalizes on the year-end tax advantages and “spirit of the season” of Christmas.
Upgrade letter: Appeal inviting donors to increase the dollar amount (and sometimes frequency) of their gifts.
Donor club invitation: Letter inviting high-dollar donors to join a President’s Circle or other exclusive donor group.
Legacy gift prospecting letter: Mailed to a select group in your house file, asking if they are interested in making a planned gift (bequest, charitable remainder trust, and so on).
Special event invitation: A card or letter inviting donors and potential donors to a golf tournament, banquet, concert or other fundraising event.
Newsletter: Sent to current donors to inform them of how your organization is using their donations to change the world.
Annual report: Usually mailed to major donors, loyal donors and donors with influence.
Survey: Designed to solicit the opinions of donors and prospective donors.
Petition: Mailed by advocacy organizations (Amnesty International and Mother Against Drunk Driving, for example) to members, inviting them to complete and mail the petitions, usually to a decision-maker in federal government.
Member-get-a-member letter: Mailed by member-based organizations, inviting members to recruit new members to the organization.
Pledge appeal: Usually sent during capital campaigns, these appeals ask recipients to pledge a larger-than-normal gift (for the donor, that is) towards the campaign, a pledge that is usually honored by the donor by making a number of gifts over a period of a year or two.
Congratulatory card: Mailed to donors on the occasion of the donors’ wedding anniversary, birthday or other special event.
Testimonial: Written endorsements from clients or donors or others affected by the work of your organization, usually accompanying an appeal letter.
Plaque: Sent to faithful or particularly generous donors as a sign of your gratitude for their extraordinary support.
Gift catalog: Describes through pictures and text the items that donors can buy from your organization to support your work (a goat for a family in India, for example).
Resource catalog: Describes the books, DVDs and other educational materials that donors can order to educate themselves and others about your cause and the people you help.
Matching gift appeal: Invites donors to give gifts that, collectively, match a large gift made by another donor.
Newspaper clipping: Has your charity received favorable press recently? Mail a copy of the article to your donors (with the newspaper’s permission).
Quiz: Do you want to stir the imaginations of your donors, particularly if they are under the age of 12? Mail them a quiz that gets them thinking about a vital subject (climate change, poverty, nuclear war, homelessness, for example).
Factsheet: Sometimes you need to give your donors statistics and facts and figures, maybe even a history of your organization. Put these into a factsheet.
Special report: Dealing with a hot and timely topic that will galvanize your constituents.
Calendar: Special calendar that highlights special events of yours and days during the year that are of interest to you and your donors.
Special event teaser: Postcards or other short notices that pique the curiosity of your supporters about upcoming events.
Photographs: Mailed to donors to show the before-and-after results of their generosity.
Premium: Return address labels, notepads and other incentives designed to persuade the recipients to donate.
Freemium: Items enclosed with a direct mail appeal that have no intrinsic value, but help you communicate your appeal in a tangible, memorable way. A hospital, for example, might enclose a facsimile of a patient bracelet once worn by a young cancer survivor.
Involvement device: Scratch-off cards, checkboxes and other devices that involve the donor in meaningful ways and encourage a donation.
Brochure: Shows in pictures and words what you cannot discuss in the body of your letter.
Reprint: Has your CEO just given a speech to the United Nations? Transcribe the speech and mail it to your donors (assuming your CEO is a dynamic speaker, of course!).
Progress report: Mailed to donors, usually major donors, who have designated their gifts to a particular project, and who need to be kept informed about your progress with their money.
Follow-up note: Mailed after you’ve phoned your donor or made a personal visit, usually to thank the donor.
Income tax receipt: The more of these you have to mail each year, the better, right?

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Donor Newsletters: Four Things Your Donors Demand from You

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:09:38 +0000

Back in the 1990s, I worked for a non-profit organization that mailed a multi-page, full-colour newsletter to around 14,000 people each month, at a cost of around $0.50 a piece. The majority of people who received the newsletter had never given a donation to the organization. Yet the organization had been mailing thousands of these people month in and month out, for years.

The executive director finally decided to save some money by asking these newsletter recipients if they wanted to continue receiving the newsletter. He told them in a letter that their free newsletter “subscription” would expire if he did not hear from them. He didn’t hear from them.

Of the 14,000 newsletter recipients who received this letter, only around 2,500 said they wanted to continue receiving the newsletter. In other words, 82% didn’t want to receive it. Which means the non-profit organization immediately started saving $5,750 a month, or $69,000 a year, by refusing to print and mail a donor newsletter to people who didn’t want to read it.

You can save this kind of money by making your newsletter the kind that donors want to read. Here are the four things that today’s donors demand in a donor newsletter.

1. Accomplishments
“What did you do with my money?” That’s the question donors are asking themselves when they read your newsletter. Donors want proof, in words and pictures, that their donations are making a difference. They want to see that your organization is using their donations the way donors want them used. So make sure your newsletter highlights accomplishments.

2. Vision
“What could you do with my money?” This is the question donors are asking as they contemplate giving again. Why should they renew their support? You need to give some compelling reasons. Not in the form of a vision statement or mission statement, but in the form of exciting, relevant initiatives that you want to undertake with the donor’s help.

3. Recognition
“Did my support matter?” Your donors pick up your donor newsletter to read about themselves. They want to see that they matter, that they are important, to your organization. They want you to recognize them and the contribution they make to the people you serve. So be sure to recognize your donors. Show that you value them. Answer the question donors are asking, “Did my support matter?”

4. Efficiency
“Can I trust you with my money?” This is one question donors are asking more often these days. Just this week (November, 2007) the head of the Red Cross in the United States was forced to resign because of a moral lapse he had at work involving a female colleague. Your donors want to know that your organization is trustworthy and financially responsible. Your donor newsletter is the best place to build that trust over time.

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In Donor Newsletters, Avoid Cliché Photos

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:09:05 +0000

If you want to guarantee that your donors will ignore your newsletters, illustrate your stories with cliché photos. Here are the top four:

1. People cutting a ribbon with an oversized pair of cardboard scissors.

2. Ground breaking ceremony in which a bunch of suits with hard hats pose with their feet on shovels.

3. Oversized check being passed from donor to executive director.

4. Someone receiving an award, gripping the hand of the presenter, and grinning at the camera.

If you want to guarantee that the media will ignore your event, invite them to one of these ceremonies. The only thing the media despise more than press conferences are ribbon-cuttings, ground-breakings, check-passing ceremonies and “grip and grin” photos, says publicity expert Joan Stewart.

Be like Queen’s University and do something different. The college in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, held a groundbreaking ceremony in which the Principal climbed into the seat of an excavator, drove it onto the field before the gathered dignitaries and media, and brought the shovel down into the ground and back up again full of dirt. That’s different. That’s the kind of photo that will grab the attention of your donors, and the media.

Think long and hard and you’ll come up with creative alternatives to cliché newsletter photos.

Instead of a check-passing photo, take a photo of someone receiving what the gift funded.

Instead of a ribbon-cutting photo featuring your leaders, why not take a photo that features your donors? Let’s say you mailed a special appeal letter six months ago, asking for funds to build a wheelchair-accessible ramp at your summer camp for kids. The money came in, the ramp is complete, and the project was a success.

You could run a story in your newsletter with the headline, “New Wheelchair Access Ramp Completed,” accompanied by a photo of the ribbon-cutting ceremony with this caption: “Our executive director cuts the ribbon during the opening ceremony for our new wheelchair access ramp.” Boring. The focus of the story is the ribbon and the ramp, not the benefits of the ramp (who it helps) or the cause of the ramp (the donors).

Instead, you could take a photo of a camper descending the ramp all by herself in her motorized wheelchair. Surrounding the ramp are the volunteers who donated their time, and a representative sampling of donors who gave their gifts. They are all waving and applauding as the girl makes her way to the bottom of the ramp, ready to break through the inaugural ribbon at the bottom with her legs (much the same way Olympic runners do with their chests).

The headline reads: “New Wheelchair Ramp Gives One Camper—and Many Donors—a Big Lift.”

The photo caption reads: “INCLINED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: Dozens of Camp Wikiming volunteers and donors celebrate as 13-year-old Kirsten Jacobs enjoys the fruit of their love, labour and generosity—the new wheelchair access ramp to Lansing Hall.”

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Donor Newsletters Must Avoid Boring Stories in Direct Mail Fundraising

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:17:36 +0000

One day one of the greatest bores at the Player’s Club said to Oliver Herford, “Oliver, I have been grossly insulted. Just as I passed that group over there I overheard someone say he would give me fifty dollars to resign from the club.”

“Hold out for a hundred,” counselled Hereford, “you’ll get it.”

The only difference between that bore and some donor newsletters is that he was a bore in person while the newsletters are a bore on paper. But each produces the same response in those who come across them. Avoidance.

So if you want to write, design and produce newsletters that attract donors, avoid these boring stories.

History of your organization
Someone once observed that all great movements “start with a man, grow into a movement, then become a monument.” The older an organization gets, the more bureaucratic it becomes, and the more it looks inward. But donors want to read about what you are doing on the outside, in the real world.

Your donors don’t care that you are celebrating your 30th anniversary. Or that you opened your fifth office at the corner of 12th and 139th streets in 1968. They care that you are still active today.

Your donors don’t care to read a chronology of your organization that leads them on a circuitous route from Dan to Beersheba. They don’t want the past. They want to read about the future. Donors give gifts to organizations that look ahead, not backwards. So avoid history lessons in your newsletters. Save them for your annual report.

Minutes of your annual meeting
Your donors want to view your work from 20,000 feet. They want to see the big picture, with close-ups every now and then of particular projects or particular people. What they don’t want is the view from your office ceiling, where they see your internal machinations, committee findings and resolutions. Those things are vital, but not to your donors.

Message from your president
Just the sound of it makes me tremble. And so will your donors if you feature a regular message from someone in your organization who has authority but no charisma. If your president is Nelson Mandela or Bono, then you should include a column over that person’s signature. Your donors will expect it. And read it. But call the column, “A Note from Nelson,” or, if your president is Bono, “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

My advice for you in choosing your donor newsletter content is to remember the doormat that you’ll find outside the homes of amateur pilots. Instead of “Welcome,” these doormats say, “A pilot and a normal person live here.” Take the lesson to heart and your editorial content will never again bore your donors to tears. Even though you may produce tears on occasion.

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Donor Newsletters Must be Newsworthy in Direct Mail Fundraising

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:58:03 +0000

The secret to publishing compelling donor newsletters is to only publish stories that are newsworthy to your donors. But how do you decide if a story is newsworthy? Take this simple test.

Is the story timely?
Is the topic on everyone’s mind these days? Did it just happen? For a story to be newsworthy it must contain information that is new, recent. Any topic that is current has the potential to be newsworthy. Think within the timeframe of your newsletter. Whatever your publishing schedule (weekly, monthly, quarterly), every story you publish should deal with events that occurred since your last newsletter and not before.

Is the story significant?
Why is it important? Why does it matter? Why does it matter now? The easiest way to answer this question is to count the number of people the story affects. If the story is about the annual board retreat, the number of people affected is likely the number of people on your board. But if the story is about a board retreat attended by Nelson Mandela and Bono, and a donation of $100 million given to fund your latest dream project for inner- city toddlers, then you have a few more people affected. People who will find the story significant.

Is the story dramatic?
News is about people. Donors want to read about amazing people doing amazing things. A story about Greenpeace activists in the South Atlantic protesting illegal whaling wasn’t dramatic until a Japanese whaler fired a grenade-tipped harpoon within a few feet of one of the Greenpeace activists, knocking him into the deadly, icy waters.

Is the topic odd or unusual?
If your soup kitchen serves 1,000 meals a week, that’s usual. But if one of your guests turns out to be a client from years ago who has since gone clean, gone straight and is now a millionaire business owner who mentors youth, and has returned to your soup kitchen to tell you he’s thankful for your help years ago, that’s unusual.

Is the story controversial?
Are your volunteers chained to the railings of the Indonesian Embassy in Washington? Has your executive director gone on record as saying the only kind of safe sex is that between a man and a woman who are married for life and monogamous? Newspapers , magazines, tabloids and television and radio talk shows, as you know, thrive on controversy. If you can find a story that is controversial but also in good taste, and relevant to your case for support, you have a newsworthy story.

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In Donor Newsletters, Put Captions Under Photos to Boost Readership

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:28:15 +0000

A picture is never worth a thousand words. After all, why do newspapers and websites contain more words than images? Because pictures are insufficient on their own. Would you date someone whose nice photo you saw online, if that’s all you had to go on? Of course not. Pictures are not worth a thousand words.

Pictures can’t tell a story on their own. They need a narrative. They need words to help them out. That’s why you must put captions under the photographs in your donor newsletters. I’m not talking about stock photos that your designer places on pages for artistic effect. I’m talking about the newsy photos, the photos of your work, your volunteers, your latest event, the people you help, the photos that must communicate news or facts to your donors.

Photos in donor newsletters need a caption to explain what the photo cannot. And that’s the secret of a great caption. It moves your story along by describing the news behind what the donor is seeing without simply describing what the photo already illustrates.

For example, if your newsletter features a story about therapeutic horse riding for young people with Down syndrome, you could simply place a photo of a young man and a horse somewhere on the page and hope that your readers figure out the relationship of the photo to your story. I recommend you don’t do this.

Or you could place a simple caption under the photo that says, “A young man with Down syndrome and his horse.” This I also recommend you don’t do, since this caption merely describes what they reader can already see in the photo.

Instead, you should caption this photo with a line or two that describes what the reader cannot see. For example: “When Brian Phillips rode his first horse three years ago, Brian could not speak. But today, Brian says: ‘Horses are awesome! Trigger is my best friend, next to my Mom, that is.’”

Look for the news in your photographs, the meaning behind each picture that you know but that your readers do not. Look for the who, what, why, where, when and how in each photo, and then communicate that to your readers in a pithy caption that explains the photo and encourages readers to read the article. The article that has the thousand words.

If you need help crafting original, compelling donor newsletter stories, give us a call at 877 742-7732, or take a look at one of the resources below.

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Three Donor Newsletter Mistakes to Avoid.

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:29:25 +0000

Every healthy direct mail fundraising program balances asking with informing. Appeal letters do the asking. And donor newsletters do the informing.

But your donors will only read your newsletters if each newsletter is donor-centered and engaging. You can’t simply present news. Instead, you must write every issue with your donor in mind. To do that, avoid these three common mistakes in donor fundraising newsletters.

Mistake #1: Focus on the institution, not the donor.
If your newsletters are filled with stories about board member retreats, staff appointments and promotions and accounts of what goes on at head office, you are writing about yourselves. And donors don’t want to read about you. They want to read about themselves, and the things that interest them. So before you touch a key on your keyboard, ask yourself if the story you are about to publish in your newsletter is about you or about your donors.

Mistake #2: Cliché photos.
You’ve seen them. The staff and volunteers standing behind an oversized cheque. Or the mayor cutting a ribbon in front of the new library. Or a bunch of men in suits, wearing hardhats and holding shovels, bending over and grinning as they pretend to break ground for a new building.

These photos are so tired and overused that city newspaper editors hate them. So avoid them in your donor newsletters. Instead, capture your staff, volunteers and donors doing something original. Only publish newsletter photos that tell your story in creative ways.

Mistake #3: No captions under photos.
A picture is never worth a thousand words. Would you buy a house from a photo only, however informative? Would you take a new job if all you had to go on was a terrific photo of the person who is in the role presently?

Just about every photo you publish in your newsletter requires explaining. Why is that tall man chained to the railing of the US embassy? Who is that boy receiving that gift? Where in the world was this photo taken? When did this event take place? Answer these questions that your photos evoke by captioning every photo. Think who, what, why, where, when and how.

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Boost Email Donor Newsletter Open Rates with Safe Subject Lines.

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 13:58:33 +0000

The last time I checked, which is to say, yesterday, the average open rate for an email donor newsletter was 37%. That means 63 percent of donors are not opening the email newsletters they’ve asked to receive.

If they’re not opening them, then they’re not reading them. And if they’re not reading them, then they’re not clicking any of the links, including the ones that lead to online donation pages. Thus, one sure way to boost your online donation rates is to boost your email open rates. One way to do that is to write good subject lines. Here are some proven methods.

1. Put your newsletter name in the subject line
With email donor newsletters, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. Familiarity breeds trust. And trust is the single most important ingredient of online fundraising success. Donors who receive your emails need to see in a split second that your email is from a source they trust and contains a message they want.

The most predictable subject line is the name of your publication. Donors who see the publication name month after month will easily recognize it and look forward to reading each issue.

2. Put your organization name in the subject line
If you received an email today with “July 2006 E-Snapshots” in the subject, would you know for sure who the message was from and what it was about? Only if you knew the charity well. Or had a terrific memory.

If the name of your organization isn’t in the name of your newsletter, then consider putting your organization name in your subject line. This is especially vital when your email newsletter has an obscure name that only makes sense when paired with your organization name. Some examples of obscure newsletter names:

Organization: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Email newsletter name: Bullet Counter Points Blog

Organization: Trans World Radio
Email newsletter name: E-Snapshots

Organization: World Wildlife Fund Canada
Email newsletter name: Panda Mail

These newsletter names can all be improved dramatically as email subject lines by simply adding the name of the organization. “E-Snapshots from Trans World Radio,” for example.

3. Use donor-centered keywords
If you are still concerned that jumpy donors will mistake your email newsletter for spam~, then write your subject using words and phrases that describe your mission and the cause that your donors and members support. Here are three examples:

From: Greenpeace Canada
Subject: Driftnets, dolphins and your chance to tell us what you think…

From: Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA
Subject: Supreme Court Delivers a Victory for Human Rights

From: Insight for Living Ministries
Subject: A Message from Insight for Living

Just make sure that the keywords in your subject line, even if they appeal to your donors, will not set off spam~ filters. Phrases like “free,” “prizes” and “save,” and symbols like “!” “$” and “XXX”) will trigger spam~ filters and route your newsletter to the trash folder.

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Email Donor Newsletters: Improve Your Open Rates for Online Fundraising and Donation Success

Alan Sharpe — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:43:56 +0000

One of the greatest challenges in email fundraising is poor open rates. The majority of donors who subscribe to email donor newsletters receive them but never open them.

If you track your open rates, you likely already know that roughly 36 percent of your subscribers open your emails. That means a whopping 64 percent of your email appeals and email donor newsletters either languish in inboxes unread, get deleted by overzealous index fingers, or never appear in donor inboxes because spam~ filters catch them first.

Improve your open rates today using these proven methods.

1. Put yourself in the From line.
Put the name of your organization in the From line. Readers will see immediately that your email is from someone they trust. Some examples:

From: Amnesty International USA [alerts@takeaction.amnestyusa.org]

From: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence [action@action.csgv.org]

From: MADD Online [enews@madd.org]

If you use an email service provider, such as Constant Contact or GetActive, do not use them in the From line. Greenpeace Canada’s newsletters, for example, arrive from ems@thindataworks.com. Your donors and members—and their spam~ filters—will not recognize a sender like that, and may inadvertently delete the valuable email fundraising newsletters they want to receive from you.

2. Put your reader in the To line.
Show your reader who the email newsletter is for by putting your donor’s name and email address in the To line. Don’t leave this line blank. That’s what spammers do, and you don’t want to be mistaken for a spammer. I have in my inbox, for example, an email that looks like this at the top:

From: Ontario March Of Dimes [info@dimes.on.ca]
Subject: Ontario March of Dimes Summer Online Auction
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:54:18 -0400
Encoded attachment: image001.jpg

As you can imagine, I thought this email was spam~, not a message from a charity that I respect. It wasn’t addressed to me. And it contained an email attachment. Any email message from your organization that looks like it is for nobody in particular or everyone in general will quickly end up in the trash box.

Another mistake to avoid is putting the sender in the To line, like this:

From: ABC Charity [info@abc.org]
Subject: Summer Online Auction
To: info@abc.org

This infuriates many of your donors, and me, too. Your donors and members, especially if they share a family computer, need to know who your email is for. And they also need to know which email address they are subscribed to your newsletter under. They likely have more than one email address. Few tasks are as infuriating for donors as asking a non-profit organization to be removed from their mailing list but not being able to tell them which email address of yours they are using.

If you’d like to see an example of a donor newsletter that gets all of these things right, review this excellent example from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, at www.RaiserSharpe.com/z/madd.htm

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Donor Newsletters Boost Direct Mail Donations Without Asking For Donations.

Alan Sharpe — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:03:38 +0000

I have a client whose direct mail fundraising program is in trouble. I think you can profit from his predicament. I know he is going to. The development officers at his non-profit organization are doing plenty of things right. They attract new supporters by mailing donor acquisition packages a couple of times a year. They solicit gifts from their existing donors many times a year. They thank donors promptly for every gift received. They recover lapsed donors using direct mail. And they watch their numbers.

Yet the return on investment for their best renewal mailing each year has been declining steadily, from 1,500% five years ago to only 700% today. How come?

Because they are trying to raise money only by asking for it. With the exception of their gift acknowledgement letters, every letter they mail to donors asks for a donation. And that’s why their direct mail program is floundering.

You need givers, not just gifts

The key to success in direct mail fundraising is not donations, but donors. Your primary goal is not raising revenue, but building relationships. Your aim with everything you mail is first to keep your donors, and then to keep them giving.

The most effective way for my client to keep his direct mail income steady or growing is to use direct mail as a donor retention tool and not just as a donation acquisition tool. He should create and publish a donor newsletter, and mail it as often as he mails his appeal letters. If his donors receive four asks a year, they should receive four newsletters a year.

These newsletters can be print or email. One page or many pages. Black and white or full-color. But whatever format they take, they should inform and inspire donors.

Get by giving donors what they want

My client’s donors, like yours, give to make a difference. They want their financial contributions to right a wrong, change attitudes, eliminate a problem that keeps them awake nights, and help the downtrodden and underprivileged.

When donors pick up a newsletter, they are looking for stories that demonstrate that their gift is accomplishing their goals. That’s why my client needs to write newsletter stories that show donations at work. He needs to show the link—explicitly or implicitly—between the donor support he received and the good he is accomplishing because of it.

Many donors will not give another donation until they know their last one is hard at work. That’s why donor newsletters are so vital. They get by giving.

My client no longer expects to raise direct mail donations simply by asking for them. His attention is now off the donations and on his donors, where it always belongs.

These tips and plenty of others will be covered in Run a Successful Direct Mail Fundraising Program, a full-day workshop offered by Canadian FundRaiser in cooperation with United Way of Canada. Learn more here.

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