Nobody likes to fail. But when it comes to direct-mail efforts, lessons that arise from stunning failures often can lead to stunning success

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

What a flop! What went wrong? There could be several explanations. We went to the entire mail file instead of going to newly acquired donors and striking while the fire was still burning; we didn’t test specific file segments; we only did a mail campaign (no phone campaign); monthly giving was still fairly new; our Web site didn’t have the capability to offer this option (no organization at this time could boast of having large numbers of online donors); and as it turns out, we simply misread our donors’ likes and dislikes.