Five Components of DRTV Fundraising Success

1. Offer. Make your offer compelling and easy to understand. When your TV commercial is over, it's gone, just like a mail package in the shredder. So make the urgent case to call -- NOW.”

Set realistic gift amounts. We can take a lesson here from the for-profit world, where so much direct response is for products priced under $30. For bigger-ticket items, the cost is spread over time so the advertised amount is low -- for instance, four easy payments of $29.99 each.