Direct Mail

You can increase the response rate of your fundraising direct mail campaigns by designing your envelope to stand out. These five ideas will instantly help your donor want to open your mail piece and review your carefully-crafted message inside.

Earlier this week, a copywriter friend of mine asked a great question. And I’m sure many of you are struggling with this same predicament. Often a strategy calls for including so many offers in one direct mail fundraising appeal, so how can you include a sustainer recruitment effort as well?

At first glance, direct mail may seem outdated and ineffective. You aren’t alone in wondering if direct mail actually works for nonprofits.

After passing the House Feb. 8 in a bipartisan vote, 342-92, the Postal Service Reform Act passed the Senate Tuesday with another bipartisan vote of 79-19. It now will move to President Joe Biden’s desk where it is expected to be signed. Here’s an overview of what’s in the final bill — and what’s not.

Direct mail is extremely effective for nonprofit fundraising. With ever-increasing postage rates, it can eat away at your donations. You should not stop sending direct mail, but there are some things you can do to decrease the amount of postage you pay. The less postage you pay the more donation dollars go toward your organization.

With the understanding that the Infectious Disease Research Institute was stopping the progress of early research, American Leprosy Missions created a direct mail piece that would target donors with a higher giving propensity.

Historically, due to a mandatory quiet period after Christmas, Toys for Tots did not resume development efforts until the spring. As a result, retention rates have been declining over the past three years, which makes end-of-year mailings critical to the organization.

When it comes to direct response, data is truly your most valuable asset. But far too often, nonprofit databases are filled with random (and often meaningless) fields while also failing to track and report on key data fields for the purpose of analysis and strategic planning.

During the pandemic, it seemed like every week there was a shortage of something you just assumed would always be available. There's even a Wikipedia page called "Shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic," that includes not just the titular ketchup packets and yeast...

It’s a wonderful feeling when something you always thought was bad for you turns out to be good for you. Take the use of pseudonyms in fundraising stories. There’s a widespread presumption that using made-up names for real people is a necessary evil...