Heritage Foundation Appeal Takes Risks

By Kimberly Seville

Everything about the Heritage Foundation's invitation to join its monthly giving program screams, "Look at me! Open me! I'm irresistible!"

I have been a Heritage Foundation donor off and on for many years, and because I've received this package before, I believe it's a control. And a brilliant one.

A donor's experience with it is very tactile and begins with the 93⁄8-inch-by-12-inch outer envelope constructed of clear, plastic sheeting material that feels a bit heavier than the kind used to make freezer food storage bags. There's no flap, per se, but a slit at one end is "sealed" with an official-looking, neon-orange WARNING label that also reads, "Please do not tamper with or obstruct delivery of the contents of this package."

Most of the enclosures are concealed by an 81⁄2-inch-by-6-inch yellow page folded over the letter, reply form and return envelope. The recipient's address is circled in blue with a line to the teaser, "Please rush to this address." I wonder if it would be even more effective if this was hand-drawn and in real handwriting to match the signature on the letter, but it probably doesn't matter given what is paper-clipped beneath: a small stack of postage stamps.

Visible through the clear sheeting, those stamps make it pretty much impossible for a donor to throw this package away unopened. The 24-cent stamp on top is just the beginning, and who knows how much more postage is underneath?

What's underneath, as it turns out, are a 10-cent stamp and two 4-cent stamps, which was enough for First Class postage prior to May's increase to 44 cents. But the letter is dated April 20, and I received it on May 6, just a few days before the postage increase took effect.

Oops
At first I couldn't figure out why the Heritage Foundation hadn't either moved the mail date or included enough stamps for First Class postage regardless of when the donor replied. The last thing you want is your donor's response being returned to him or her with that mean U.S. Postal Service finger pointing at your donor's address, indicating the mail is being returned to sender due to "INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE."

But a closer look at the stamps revealed that they're self-adhesive and — aha! — someone had pain-stakingly cut each of them from sheets of stamps.

Then I saw the required "MADE IN HONG KONG" on the back of the return envelope, and I knew what went wrong. Because this package was produced overseas, there likely was several months' lead time due to all the work involved. My guess is the Heritage Foundation got broadsided by the postage increase, unable to change the denomination or number of the stamps enclosed.

And sometimes, when the choice is either to dump the mail and eat the considerable expense or to go ahead and drop it anyway, it makes more sense to lie back and think of England, because some response is better than no response.

A risky promise
The letter is a classic monthly giving invitation, and I hope it produced a respectable response in spite of the unfortunate timing. First, the case for support:

"President Barack Obama and his allies on the extreme left are poised to destroy everything that you and I have worked so hard for and hold so dear. Our economy, our jobs, our businesses, our retirement, our values, our savings, our medical care, our families … "

Then the stamps offer:

"And that is exactly why I sent you these stamps equaling your first-class return postage. I wanted you to see how serious I am — I don't want anything, not even the cost of return postage, to come between you and me and the most effective and efficient giving program we've ever had. You see, I am urging you to please become a member of our Leaders Club today."

The three-page letter contains liberal personalization with "Ms. Seville" appearing six times, and the monthly pledge request also can be personalized based on my previous gifts, at "$4, $5 or $6" with the most concentration on the $4 ask.

Heritage Foundation's monthly giving program signs up donors for automatic bank drafts, but does not include a credit card option or allow donors to send monthly checks. All the Heritage Foundation wants is my "Starter Check" and my signature on the bank draft agreement to join its Leaders Club. Or, if not, it would like my "special one-time only check" in the curious amount of $32, $38 or $44.

Automatic bank draft donors have the highest lifetime value compared to other types of monthly donors, and I understand why many nonprofits concentrate on obtaining more of them. However, a promise that they'll receive little or no mail as a benefit is a concern.

"Your monthly $4 gift means we won't have to send you so many mail solicitations, Ms. Seville. We'll save valuable resources that would otherwise be spent on postage, paper and printing. That allows us to concentrate even further on fighting the radical agenda of President Obama and the liberals in Congress."

The downside of this strategy is that an organization's very best donors — people who are so committed to the cause they'll let it dip into their bank accounts every month — then have fewer opportunities to further bond or perhaps even have any kind of relationship with the nonprofit.

How will they know their gifts are making a difference? How will they feel appreciated? How will they be inspired to make occasional extra gifts in addition to their monthly pledges? How will they be motivated to make bequests?

Rather than effectively end the relationship, I think the better way to go paperless is to offer to move the communications online. That way the organization can cultivate the relationship with regular updates on how donors' monthly gifts are being used and also give them the lovely, feel-good flush that making a donation triggers.

It's the least they deserve. FS

Kimberly Seville is a creative strategist and freelance copywriter. Reach her at kimberlyseville@yahoo.com