Integration of online and direct mail fundraising has been staple topic of conferences for at least five years now.  So it’s time to separate the results from the hype.

Yes, of course you should seek to integrate your mail and online programs, and the larger the mail and online programs, the more upside for integration.  Of course, you want to enable your supporters to donate by whatever channel they choose for a given gift – the BRE, the donation page on your site, or plain unmarked bills delivered to your door.

While online giving has grown significantly over the last five years, most donors still give by mail.  Just 9 percent of donors came in online in the most recent evaluation of 12 national organizations, but they account for 21 percent of new donor revenue because of much higher gift levels.  The online donors are younger and have higher household income (because they’re working, not retired).

Over the last three years, the donorCentrics ™ Internet Benchmarking program that we’ve worked on with Target Analytics has shown that up to 25% of online acquired donors make at least one gift online, but that few mail-acquired donors give online.  When mail donors do migrate to online giving their gifts are larger; and when online donors give in the mail, they give small gifts.

Some of the giving difference is certainly age – most online donors are over 60, many over 70, and these folks are less likely to give on.  Habit also seem to be a factor:  The longer a mail-acquired donor is on your file, the less likely she will make an online gift.  However, these numbers are averages, and your file may differ, especially if you have a younger mail file (such as a group like Human Rights Campaign) or if earthquakes, hurricanes, or other high-profile emergencies motivate your mail donors to go online to give.

As you probably know by now, online donors have higher lifetime value than mail donors, mainly because their average gifts are so much higher.  Multi-channel donors are even more valuable.  But even mail donors with e-mail addressees on file who have not given online are more valuable, either because the e-mail messages they receive motivate them to give more in the mail, or because the donors who offer you their e-mail addresses care more about you.  (What about donors whose e-mail addresses you have appended?  We don’t have the data, but it could be they are more affluent and/or younger than those for whom you can’t find an e-mail address.)

So what should you do?

  1. Add your online activists and subscribers to your mail acquisition program.  They’ll often perform as well or better than any non-house list – and they are free.
  2. Ask mail donors for their e-mail addresses, and send your 0-24 month mail donor file to an appending house like FreshAddress or Tower Data for appending. That will cost 15 to 35 cents per matched name, depending on quantities.
  3. Send e-mail newsletters and/or advocacy actions to your mail donors to give them another touch point.
  4. Send e-mail appeals to your direct mail donors either to repeat the message they’re getting in the mail, or to fundraise during late-breaking opportunities when there is no time to mail. Sending e-mail to arrive just after the postal mail seems to increase response the most, but test it if your file is big enough.
  5. Integrate your membership renewal efforts to make sure that supporters get the renewal message in the mail, in e-mail, on the Web site, on your Facebook page, even in your tweets.
  6. Don’t expect fundraising miracles from integration; the two donors groups are still separate, though there’s increasing convergence.
  7. Ask your donors what they want in surveys, focus groups, on the phone, and when you meet with them.

Nick Allen is co-founder and chief strategy officer of Donordigital, the online fundraising, marketing, and advertising company.  Contact: nick@donordigital.com or phone (510) 473-0366.