Give What You Can

Over the four-year capital campaign, the development team mailed five direct-mail appeals to its housefile of 55,000 to 60,000 donors, commissioning a new package that included a brown kraft-paper outer that matched other campaign materials.

GCFD raised $1.4 million through direct mail, with an average gift of $182, compared with a $63 average gift in its regular direct-mail program. Maehr’s team didn’t send capital-campaign appeals to the acquisition file, choosing instead to build on the sense of community with existing donors. However, working off the mailer’s success, the team sent out a kraft-paper package as its fall 2003 regular acquisition package (not linked to the capital campaign), and it did so well that it’s now the control.