Direct Mail

Effective use of direct mail required good leadership. This must start with the decision makers who decide to use direct mail as a fundraising method. Direct mail fundraising is a process. Good results require testing over time. There are no shortcuts to success with direct mail, therefore leadership is required to both implement a long range plan and provide daily management of the program. Visit the Organizational Development for more information about leadership development.

An organization should devote at least 3 years to a direct mail program in order to evaluate the results. A budget is needed to drop large quantities of mail packages (to at least 25,000 households each) frequently (at least 4 times per year). Long range planning is required to implement and sustain the effort. Direct mail is really a series of tests to discover the best methods, mail packages, copy writing, and lists which work for your organization. The only way to find out what is best is to test repeatedly.

More information about direct mail fundraising information coming soon, including the following:

List Rental / Mailing Lists

List selection is a critical step in the success of a donor acquisition direct mail campaign. Various lists must be studied and tested. When one list does well, similar lists should be tested. Remember the three most important things about lists: test, test, test.

List Segmentation

The segmentation of lists include three basic categories: average gift, frequency, and recency. Donors should be tracked in a database and targeting mailings should be sent to each group.

Writing Copy

Marketing concepts and creative writing skills are critical components to a successful direct mail campaign.

Printing & Mail Shop Services

Processing Donations / Caging & Accounting

Accounting and banking services coming soon.

Database / Donor List Segmentation / Donor Cultivation

Gift acknowledgement is critical for donor relations. It's been said that saying thank you seven times for a contribution is good. A well written follow-up program with good database tracking and list segmentation is required in order to cultivate relationships with different types of donors.

Major Gifts and Direct Mail

Normally major gifts require a personal ask. This requires a personal relationship to be developed between the donor and staff members of the non-profit. Go to the Major Gifts page of Process Donations for more information.