Category Archives: Strategy
How Angry Are Your Donors With You? Take this Quiz and Find Out.
Have you upset one of your donors recently? Just how mad do you suppose they are at you, on a scale of 1 to 10? Take this quiz and find out. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each … Continue reading
Answer the Only Question Donors Have and You’ll Raise More Money Fundraising
Your donors have only one question that bothers them. If you want to acquire more donors, you have to answer it. If you want to raise more net revenue, you need to answer it. And if you want to increase … Continue reading
Win Board Approval for Your Fundraising Budget by Calculating Your Long-Term Donor Value
The ten dumbest words ever spoken in the English language are: “We don’t have money in our fundraising budget for that.” The people who say this most often are board members. Uninformed board members. Timid board members. Board members who … Continue reading
Why Average Lifetime Donor Value is the Most Important Metric in Fundraising
Nothing says more about the success of your fundraising program than the lifetime value of your average donor. Average lifetime value, of course, is the gross income you receive from your typical donor during the time the donor is giving … Continue reading
Give Your Donors What They Want so You Get What You Want
Thank your donors promptly and personally every time they mail you a gift. Describe how you are using the donor’s last gift the way the donor intended. The majority of long-term, faithful donors give to make a difference, and many … Continue reading
When to Ignore Your Direct Mail Fundraising Test Results
Direct mail fundraising is a soccer game where the opposing team keeps moving the goal posts. A premium that worked last year doesn’t work today. A package design that worked at your last charity doesn’t work at your new one. … Continue reading
How to Discover How Many Donors You Need to Reach Your Annual Revenue Goal
Does your charity need to double or triple or quadruple its income over the next five or ten years? Are you trying to figure out how to do that? Follow these simple steps to discover how many donors you’ll likely … Continue reading
Boost Your Fundraising Letter Response Rates and Revenue with Five Simple Segmentations
I was 44 years old, about to adopt my second child, and was sitting in my lawyer’s office, looking over his updated draft of my will. Everything looked fine except for one small mistake. Throughout the document, he referred to … Continue reading
Questions to Answer Before Requesting a Quote from a Direct Mail Fundraising Consultant
If your charity wants to retain the services of a direct mail fundraising firm to conduct your next mailing, answer these questions before you pick up the phone. You’ll save yourself a lot of time, and give the firm everything … Continue reading
Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Tests: Five Ways to Evaluate Your Results
If you drop a donor acquisition package in the mail as a test and it generates a response rate of 17%, can you say your campaign was a success? No. If your donor acquisition test mailing generates an average gift … Continue reading
Twenty Postal Strike Survival Tips for Charities and Non-Profits
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 … Continue reading
Fundraising Letters: Casanova Never Mailed One Love Letter a Year, So Neither Should You
The worst thing you can do in direct mail fundraising is mail only one appeal a year. Direct mail is part of your annual campaign, yes. But that doesn’t mean you should mail only one fundraising letter every 12 months. … Continue reading
Dear Alan, What do you Recommend for Reminder Letters?
Dear Alan, Do you have any suggestions for the (post direct mail) reminder letter? I would love your thoughts on the letter as well as the donation form. Thanks, Shannon Brown —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each … Continue reading
Don’t Watch Fundraising Costs, But Cost-Effectiveness
I received an email from a fundraiser who is about to lose her job. Her board of directors has decided they cannot afford her salary. They see her salary as just a line item in the budget, one found under … Continue reading
Improve Your Direct Mail Fundraising Letters: Donate to Your Competitors
One of the quickest ways to learn the craft of direct mail fundraising is to donate money to your strongest competitors. Pick the Top 10 organizations you admire and mail them a donation of at least $20. Then watch your … Continue reading
Look for Connection, Not Cash, in Prospective Direct Mail Donors
I received an email the other day that reads as follows: –letter starts– Hello Mr. Raiser, My name is _______. I work for a non profit organization, the ____________. We are in a season of taking the ministry international and … Continue reading
Reduce Your Direct Mail Fundraising Costs by Mailing Less Often to Those Who Give Less
The secret to reducing your direct mail fundraising costs is counterintuitive, like fertilizer. Next time you’re out in the boonies, watch as a farmer spreads fertilizer over his field. As he passes over the parts of his field that always … Continue reading
41 Things You Can Mail to Donors in Direct Mail Fundraising
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 … Continue reading
Five Vital Signs of a Healthy Direct Mail Fundraising Program
I spent last night visiting two hospitals with my four-year-old son, Spencer. I noticed that the staff at each hospital took the same vital signs (pulse, oxygen saturation, temperature, breathing) to determine Spencer’s health. Nurses and doctors miles apart, working … Continue reading
Direct Mail Fundraising Success Depends on a Strong Case for Support
The secret to raising funds with direct mail appeal letters is not found in what you say or in how you say it but in why you say it. Success is found not in technique but in truth. The truth … Continue reading
Fundraising Letter Writing Tips from Reader’s Digest
If your donor has the choice of reading your fundraising letter or reading the latest issue of Reader’s Digest, which one will she read? This is not a trick question. The competition for your donor’s attention has never been greater. … Continue reading
Boost Your Direct Mail Fundraising Response Rates with Deadlines
Why did the Canadian cross the road? To get to the middle. Your job as a direct mail fundraiser is to give your donors both a reason for donating and an incentive for donating. Your enemy is inertia. Your enemy … Continue reading
Attract More Donors with Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Fundraising Letters by Avoiding these Mistakes
Woody Allen once said that “80 percent of success is just showing up.” He was wrong, of course. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse Alan’s books, … Continue reading
Prevent Costly Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Blunders with Test Mailings
I know a non-profit that mailed a direct mail donor acquisition package to thousands of potential donors and generated a response rate of exactly zero. That’s not a typo. Not a single person responded to the mailing. —————————————————————- Receive a … Continue reading
Direct Mail Fundraising is a Program, Not a Campaign
Before they hired me as their director of development, and before they ran out of money and laid me off, a non-profit organization whose name is unmentionable ran an unmentionable direct mail program. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like … Continue reading
Direct Mail Fundraising Letters: Your Competitor is American Idol.
The bereaved mother who became a figurehead for the US anti-war movement abandoned her fight in May 2007 after growing disenchanted with the campaign. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser … Continue reading
Are You Too Small for Direct Mail Donor Acquisition?
Some non-profit organizations should not use direct mail as a way to attract new donors. Is your organization one of them? Take this simple test and find out. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. … Continue reading
Why New Non-profits Shouldn’t Use Direct Mail to Raise Start-up Capital.
Be warned. If you’re starting a non-profit and don’t have $100,000 in the bank, don’t use direct mail. You literally cannot afford to use direct mail to raise funds right now. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each … Continue reading
Annual Doesn’t Mean Annually in Direct Mail Fundraising Campaigns.
One of your greatest obstacles in operating a successful annual fund is thinking of it as an annual fund. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse Alan’s … Continue reading
Spot Potential Direct Mail Donors Using the 3 Cs of Fundraising.
What does an ideal new direct mail donor look like? How can you spot one in a crowd? Or in a list of potential donors? Look for the 3 Cs. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week … Continue reading
Donation Request Letters Need Suspense To Keep Donor Attention.
How would your next fundraising letter perform if Agatha Christie wrote it? Continue reading
Successful Fundraising Letters Give Your Donors Conflict.
Your fundraising letters will be more dramatic if you write them like a novel. Continue reading
Write Novel Fundraising Letters Using Fiction Techniques.
What would happen if the author of The Da Vinci Code wrote your next direct mail fundraising appeal letter? —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse Alan’s … Continue reading
Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Ask Anyone For A Direct Mail Donation.
I have a brother-in-law who farms and drives a 16-wheeler for a living. When I told him that I start each business day with a blank computer screen that I must fill with at least 1,000 words by noon, he … Continue reading
Your Fundraising Appeal Letters Need a Villain.
Anger is one of the best emotions that you can arouse in a donor. Anger is a healthy emotion, particularly when your fundraising letter offers donors a way to assuage their anger. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this … Continue reading
Your Not-For-Profit Fundraising Letter Program Has Three Goals.
Your direct mail fundraising program should have three goals. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse Alan’s books, handbooks and tools about fundraising. Visit the fundraising bookstore … Continue reading
