How to Handle Donor Complaints

How to handle complaints about duplicate appeals

by Julie Weidenbach

Julie Weidenbach is vice president and general manager of Response Management Technologies, Inc. (Berkeley, California).

The buck – literally –stops here.

In my company, which serves dozens of nonprofit organizations and political committees, we've seen just about every donor complaint in the book – because we're the ones who read them first.

Response Management is a computer service bureau that provides "back-end services" to assist direct mail and telephone fundraisers. We process gifts, deposit checks, update mailing lists, provide statistical reports on mailing results ... and pass along the correspondence that donors send to our clients.

At Response Management, we process thousands of responses from direct mail donors every month. So, you can take my word for it when I say I know how troubling it is to hear from donors who've received duplicate and unwanted mail.

I'm reproducing here the letter we recommend that our clients send to donors in response to their complaints about duplicates. Feel free to use our letter as the basis for your own response to donor complaints.

Dear Ms. Doe,

Thank you for taking the time to write us about the mailings you've been receiving from [my organization].

I agree that it's frustrating to receive duplicate letters, and I share your concern that [my organization] not waste any funds on unwanted mailings. All of us here at [my organization] are dedicated to keeping our records as accurate as possible and to spending our funds in the wisest possible manner.

We're also committed to continuing our direct mail fundraising efforts because we've found they're the most cost-effective way to reach large number of people with our message about [our issue].

Many people have responded to our mailings. Their generous contributions account for [a very substantial proportion] of our income and enable us to accomplish much more than we could otherwise.

In many of our mailings, we use more than one list of names and addresses. When we send out such a mailing, we nearly always run a computer program (called "merge-purge") that seeks to eliminate the duplicates that occur because some people's names appear on more than one list – or because they've previously contributed to [my organization].

In preparing mailings that we send exclusively to those who've previously contributed to our work, we run a different kind of computer program (called "dupe-elimination") in hopes of eliminating duplication on our own list of donors.

But the computer is unable to catch every duplicate. Names or addresses are often slightly different – sometimes in very subtle ways – and that may fool the computer. So do multiple addresses (post office boxes, home, office, out-of-date addresses). Occasionally, delays in entering up-to-date information into the computer will also cause duplicates to be missed.

You should know, too, that you can avoid receiving so many mailings from other organizations. The Mail Preference Program of the Direct Marketing Association (6 East 43rd Street, New York, NY 10017) will register your name on a special computer file used by all reputable mailers – indicating that you don't wish to receive fundraising or commercial mailings. We use this list in all our mailings to those who don't already contribute to [my organization].

Thank you again for your concern and understanding. Your commitment to the work of [my organization] is one of the things that keeps my spirits high, and I'm personally grateful to you for your support.

Sincerely,
[your name]

Other articles on acquisition:
•How to get started with direct mail (for small organizations)
•Is it OK to take a loss on acquisition mailings?
•What should you test?
•Do label packages work?
•Choosing the right lists
•What's the best postage for direct mail letters?