In the Trenches: Pick the Perfect Lettershop

“Your donor base is a major asset to your organization, and you must be able to trust everyone who comes in contact with the names and addresses of your donors,” Kozak stresses.

Be punctual and organized
The gripe most lettershops share is that jobs come in late and improperly organized. Kozak offers four key traits that his best clients share:

• The artwork is perfect and can go straight to prepress. Printed materials arrive in perfect shape and packed properly from the printer, if produced elsewhere.

• The data instructions are written properly and match the file sent with the job.

• All materials arrive with specifics that match the quote.

• The project has a realistic schedule. Lettershops complete the last phase of a direct mail campaign before it’s turned over to the U.S. Postal Service. All lettershops prepare for crunch times and are prepared to help clients even in the most dire of circumstances. But don’t let your organization be known as the one that runs in permanent “emergency mode.”

You probably already consider your consultant, partner agency, copywriter, designer, list broker and vendors part of your fundraising team. Make sure you save a place for your lettershop provider.