How Formal?

Mr. and Mrs. or Buffy and Skipper?

Lo Hartnet, director of development for _____, asks about the wisdom of using informal or first name salutations for all of her donors. She recounts several instances where donors are offended, especially since many of the very best donors are elderly.

I always hestitate to disagree with someone who has so much more fundraising experience than I do. Lo Hartnet possesses all the characteristics of a great development director: remarkable common sense, a willingness to grapple with the details, ferocious persistence, and an ability to laugh.

Even so, I recommend that most of the clients we serve take the risk of using informal salutations when personalizing letters.

Now that I've disagreed with Ms. Hartnett, let me quote from her fax to me: "A new software enhancement has my gut in a knot. It automatically uses first name salutations to our entire database on all personalized pieces -- by default.... The [danger of this] was driven home when one member wrote our Board Vice Chair to say, 'No one calls us Steven and Nancy. As you well know, we are Skipper and Buffy to everyone.'"

Lo's question and her comments suggest a broader discussion about the use of personalization -- and about direct mail fundraising in general.

One of the reasons we get in trouble with salutations is that we use personalization inappropriately. The overwhelming percentage of almost all direct mail databases (anywhere from 60 to 95 percent) are made up of donors or members who rarely give more than $49. And the big majority of these make only one gift per year.

One of the goals of a sophisticated, systematic direct mail program is to secure this annual gift of under $50 in the most cost-effective manner. In most cases, that means eschewing personalized letters to this segment (except for those who've been contributing for many years and have lapsed).

Far too often I see organizations using personalized letters just because they have a software program that includes salutations and they've purchased a big, new laser printer. In fact, some tests show that personalized letters depress response. In many other cases, the donors mailed to don't contribute enough to offset the extra cost of the personalized letters.

The key to success in direct mail fundraising is identifying those donors or members who will a) make larger gifts, b) respond to multiple appeals, or c) become monthly donors (sustainers). Then your mailing schedule and your plans for specific mailings should concentrate resources -- in this case, personalization -- on your most generous and most responsive donors.

One of the ways to concentrate resources on the core segment of your donor database is to survey them. Ask them how they want to be treated as donors -- how often they wish to receive appeals, whether they object to having their name exchanged or to being telephoned, and how they'd like to be addressed in letters. In this way, you can put real salutations in your database.

In fact, I continue to see nonprofits who fail to realize their fundraising potential because they're so reluctant to get to know their donors -- especially their best donors. You wouldn't have to worry what salutation to use if you were placing phone calls to all those who give you $500 or more -- or arranging visits to those who contribute $1,000 or more.

Direct mail fundraising does the best job of building a base of long-term financial support for your organization. And direct mail succeeds best when it is viewed as an ongoing dialogue between your organization's staff and your most responsive donors.

Because fundraising is a dialogue, the question about salutations points to a larger issue in development. If you want to raise money, you must -- every day -- take the risk of offending someone. Fundraising is full of rejection and complaints.

But by taking risks -- and inevitably making lots of mistakes -- you provide yourself with opportunities to apololgize to your members and donors. And those apologies provide the foundation for a continuing conversation that leads to even greater investment by the donor in your organization.

More articles on resoliciting and renewing your donors
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• Mailing smarter means segmentation
• 9 steps to setting up a giving club
• 12 things to write in thank you letters to your donors
• 5 ways to conduct market research on a shoestring
• How long should your renewal series be?

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