Fundraising specialists Kay Lautman and Fran Jacobowitz offer these informed tips on direct-mail fundraising:
Envelopes
Plain-Jane packages are winning most fundraising tests, Lautman and Jacobowitz report — perhaps because mailings with heavy graphics look too “commercial.” The National Museum of the American Indian tested a “mask” mailing — showing a four-color image of an Indian mask on the outer envelope — against a plain envelope that carried a “Your Charter Invitation Enclosed” headline. The simple envelope pulled a higher average donation than the “mask” carrier, at a lower cost to raise a dollar. But the “mask” mailing generated a response rate almost 10% higher. Since the museum’s primary goal was to find new donors, it chose the “mask” package as its control. Next, the museum mailed a black-and-white version of the “mask” control. It increased response at considerably lower cost.
Premiums and Gifts
In a typical premium-based fundraising program, donors receive a mailing that tells 7 them to expect a gift — at no obligation — but asks for a contribution. Response rates range from 5% to 8%, with an average gift of $15 to $50.
Rationalize the plan
When you make unrealistic plans, you look silly and may go broke. For instance a client once asked a consultant to generate 2,000 new customers from a 500-name list.
Gift Strings
For years, in attempts to stimulate upgraded contributions, fundraisers have flagged a higher-than-usual ask in a gift string on their reply devices. Some recent testing indicates that use of the technique actually depresses average gifts — though a Castle Press mailing for UCLA showed just the opposite.
Dues
A dues hike of $5 may bring in more immediate dollars — but perhaps at the cost of depressing your number of donors. When one organization tried to raise dues by $5, its board members assumed that “Just the price of a hamburger and drink” would not matter to members. It did.
Changing your identity
One organization for which Lautman & Company works changed its logotype without testing. The results were “disastrous.”