America’s Second Harvest’s new direct-marketing approach yields ‘remarkable results’ and proves that donors are hungry for more intimate relationships with nonprofits.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“Direct marketing is critical to the success of all individual giving programs at America’s Second Harvest,” she says, in explaining why there’s been such a determined push to get the program back on track. “It feeds our planned and major giving programs, provides a stable source of income that is less likely to fluctuate in times of economic uncertainty, and is the primary method through which we brand ourselves to the donating public. Direct mail is where we start the vast majority of our individual donor contact, and then go on to stabilize them into real giving relationships.”