Do brochures — long accused of lacking intimacy — have a place in direct-mail fundraising?

By Jerry Huntsinger

Prospects who read your letter suspend disbelief and fail to apply any rational reasoning. They know in the back of their minds that the same letter is going out to thousands of other people.

But the reader can’t suspend disbelief when the brochure screams: “I’m advertising!” In direct-mail fundraising, we tend to forget that real, live, breathing individuals are reading and reacting — or not reacting — to our mail.