Your next appeal mailing

Despite the economy, many charities are still doing better this year than last.

There are examples all over the world.

So how can they do that when there are so many charities saying things are much worse?

It can only be about tactics. There are lots of documents about strategy - here is a short bunch of tactical tips for your next mail appeal.

1) Personalise the ask amount, and put a personalised ask throughout the copy of the letter, that is, mail-merge the whole letter. “Please send $75 by 20 August...” where the $75 is 1.3 to 1.5 times the donor’s previous gift.

2) Have a deadline and a target in your letter.

3) Sandwich your mailings with email . Don’t replace your mailing with email to save money (it costs less and will raise less) but do a pre-email ' 'there is an important letter coming, please read it...' and a post email reminder driving to a specific landing page with all your appeals.

4) Consider pre- or post-mailing phone calls for top tier donors. Ring them, be nice and ask for their usual gift. At least 80 per cent of your money will come from just 20 per cent of your donors. Call those donors.

5) Apply the Pareto principle. Get the best pack, at any cost - and mail it to as many as you can afford to, rather than choosing the numbers to mail and designing a pack to fit that budget. It is nearly always better to mail a $3 pack to 10,000 people than a $1 pack to 30,000 - provided the $3 pack is better! Design the high value pack first, and make the low value pack a version of that rather than the other way. Put 80 per cent of your effort into the high value pack.

6) Consider Express Post Envelopes / DHL / Fed Ex for top 100 people if you can have an urgent deadline.

7) Send a follow up mailing to your best donors – non-responders and responders.

8) Spend 80 per cent of your precious time on the copy and 80 per cent of that on the letter. The letter is the most important thing in your direct mail packs.

9) Make sure the letter looks like a letter on headed paper and the response mechanism (which can be pretty or dull) flows from the letter and reinforces the appeal.

10) Ensure you have a wonderful case study / story with a beginning, middle and end. Not just statistics. Time and time again, personal stories have been shown to hammer statistics and internal jargon. And put personal detail in the story, make it more real.

An eight year old boy who has an epileptic fit six times a day is sad.

But when he shares with the donor that his biggest fear is peeing himself in front of his mates, and that they then tease him - that is personal.

11) Do what is right, not what is easy. Argue with the boss to put in those killer lines “Please call me on my direct line to discuss the mailing.” To quote Mark Philips from UK charity agency bluefrog "Embrace the hassle."

12) Don't worry about ROI or Cost of Fundraising - be driven by NET income; right now that is what your organisation needs more than anything else.

Be one of those charities raising more from their next mailing than last year.

Australian recession busting forum...the questions raised

At the recent fundraisers Forum in Sydney, we had quite a few questions for the panel; the panel consisted of Sue-Anne Wallace (FIA), Chris Washington-Sare (Greenpeace) and Sean Triner (Pareto Fundraising).

Q. Is establishing a 'new' charity the right thing to do now?
Clive Hughes of Microloans Foundation

A. Why not? Depends on your target market. If you're targeting institutional or corporate maybe not. Now is as good a time as any, so do it now. (Chris)
This environment is creating greater interestin in organisations that act ethicaly and morally. There is a need to show that you are ethical and transparent in hoe you use donors funds. (Sue-Anne)

Q. Nicola of the Fred Hollows Foundation, agrees with focus on net income, and focus on that, however there also points out that there is an opportunity for charities to lift their game. We need to share more and work together. She is worried that the recession is a good excuse to delay further opportunities for collaboration.

A. (Sue-Anne) Charities aren't in competition, they can work together. FIA provides training and networking opportunities for 6000 people each year. The next FIA conference is in Sydney and 800 people will attend.
(Chris) Build networks: it is importnat to build your own internal networks with your competitors.
(Kelly from Redkite added) We work with other childrens cancer charities. Take the initiative, opportunity and do it.


Q. Libby, Breast Cancer asked - Do you think like-for-like charities will merge similiarily as has happened in the UK?

A. (Sue-Anne) Maybe. Some initiatives may be on hold in uncertain times.
(Martin) Triggers for mergers tended to be financial mergers. Consolidation can be beneficial.

Q. Laura, Cancer Council NSW asked should we be going out with urgent messages. How do we tweak our messages?

A. (Sean) Be honest. Don't give people excuses not to give. What is really important is how you phrase the need. No-one likes to step in to fill a hole left by Government or incompetence. It all comes down to how you write it, the key is integrity and honesty. One charity tested this in the UK and said that mentioning the recession has seen a decline in income.
(Chris) Greenpeace won't be mentioning the recession in donor letters, it is not relevant.

Q. Gabriel from Anglicare asked, Is there a pyschological barrier now for new donors to commit to regular giving?

(Chris) When you are aquiring new donors to regular giving you will find that more people will say no compared to a one-off gift. Manage your expectations.
(Sean) If you haven't got regular givers, you need to get them. And yes, it might be harder to get them but you need them, so do it. Now is the opportunity to cut back on the things that aren't effective i.e. expensive events or ineffective communications.
(Sue-Anne) If expenditure is put on hold, make sure you are still investing in training.

Q. Ian from Special Olympics asked, is there a register of corporates that you could partnership with?

A. (Sue-Anne) No. Research as much as you can.

IFC special session on fundraising in a recession

Over 100 people attended an 8am session at this years IFC to discuss the recession. This blogsite was 'launched' as well as Daryl Upsall chairing a discussion about the implications of the recession on fundraising.

Pareto Fundraising's whitepaper was introduced (sign up for a copy) and Marcelo Iniarra and Norma Galafassi presented their experiences of the massive econonic downturn in Argentina in 2001/2002. The presentation is on this blog.

Amanda Seller from WSPA international presented back the views of many INGOs following a planning session they had at the IFC. Their bottom line conclusions were:
* Look at this crisis as an opportunity
* Stay on top of the data, make sure you understand the facts
* Do the things you know you should be doing: Invest in supporter relationship management, data analysis, effective acquisition.

Only a couple of charities were considering cutting fundraising budgets. The INGOs included UNICEF, WSPA, Plan, UNHCR, WWF, Save the Children, Childfund, Christian Aid, Greenpeace, Action Aid, World Vision, Amnesty International.

They also acknowledged that things might be different for some national based charities, but were not sure how. So please, national charities, email me.

More to come... Please subscribe to the feeds and become a 'follower'.

Pareto Fundraising's whitepaper has tons of information and data, but it is too big for here so click here to register for a copy.