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

Hear Ye, Hear Ye … Don’t Traumatize Your Donors!
Submitted by Lynn Edmonds, L.W. Robbins Associates

The Campaign: The organization was a human-rights advocacy group. The mailing was a lapsed-membership renewal campaign targeting those members whose last donation was 13 months to 36 months prior. The strategy was to get the package opened by using a closed-face envelope with a provocative teaser (“stress-inducing” is probably a better way to describe it): Official Business SUMMONS.