July 2005

Integrating online with direct mail and telemarketing (Part 2) by Madeline Stanionis

Just keep it simple by Rene Bekkers and Olaf Crutzen

What's up online by Dan Weeks

Integrating online with direct mail and telemarketing (Part 2)
By Madeline Stanionis

Following is the second of three articles about the art and science of integrating direct mail, telemarketing, e-mail, and online communications. Part one covered planning and guidelines, and parts two and three will show examples and results.

Do your donors buy their airline tickets online? Tickets to plays? Or even send photos or other documents via e-mail?

For a good portion of your file, the answer to at least one of the above is a big yes. In other words, your donors are taking care of their business online. And that's exactly how you should think about implementing your online renewals or annual gifts: as giving your donors the option of taking care of their philanthropy business online.

What that means, of course, is fundraising success online is less about through-the-roof creative than it is about clarity, ease, and thoroughness. If you make it absolutely clear you're offering a fast, easy online alternative that's available in a variety of ways, then you're doing alright.

This is perfectly illustrated in the Human Rights Campaign (Washington DC) renewal series. The nation's largest gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender rights advocacy group, HRC has a large, loyal, and particularly Internet-savvy constituency, so it makes sense it runs a well-developed online renewal series.

The "home page hi-jack" (first image above right), a special page that appears instead of the organization's home page during the busiest renewal week in January, kicked off the campaign. Since many HRC members prefer to renew online, this makes it easy for them! The device resulted in 398 renewing members with an average gift of $65.84, as well as 95 new members with gifts averaging $41.80.

Madeline Stanionis is Vice President and Creative Director at Donordigital, 182 Second Street, San Francisco CA 94105, phone (415) 278-9444, fax (415) 901-0112, e-mail madeline@donordigital.com, Web www.donordigital.com.

Just keep it simple

By Rene Bekkers and Olaf Crutzen

Editor's note: Direct mail fundraising experience in the U.S. has shown that flashy graphics and abundant colors depress response rather than enhance it. In Europe, however, "creativity" is all the rage. Those brave souls who test this proposition are in the distinct minority. This article, excerpted from a Dutch academic research paper, represents one such courageous (but no doubt largely ignored) effort on the Continent.

In a national fundraising campaign in the Netherlands, a religious charity called Kerkinactie ("Church in Action") appealed for support for poverty relief, education, and health care projects in Rwanda. It was sent out in the 40-day period before Easter. Recipients included about 78,000 "givers" who had made at least one donation in the previous 24 months and 14,000 regular donors (who had made planned gifts and donated at least once in the previous 24 months). In both groups, we tested a package with a full-color picture of children in a Rwandese village against a package with a plain outer (see Table 1).

Expectations

We expected that in both categories of donors, the package with the full-color picture would yield a lower response rate and a lower average gift. We expected that these differences would be more pronounced in the group of irregular donors, because this group has a lower level of confidence in the charity and expensive packaging might compromise confidence in this group more easily than in the group of regular donors with a higher level of commitment. Regular donors do not have to be convinced that the charity is trustworthy by showing restraint in the design of direct mail appeals.

Table 2 presents response rates and amounts donated in the four experimental groups. The results confirmed our expectations. In the group of "givers," the response rate was more than 2% higher without the full-color picture than with it. The average donation was also higher by 88 cents. The same pattern emerged among the group of regular donors, although the differences were less pronounced.

Conclusion

The results clearly confirmed our expectation that showing restraint in the design of direct mail appeals in a fundraising campaign would yield a higher response rate and higher donations. Although we cannot be sure whether this result is due to aversion against high fundraising costs among donors, it seems likely because the differences were more pronounced among the group of irregular donors who can be assumed to have a lower level of confidence in the charity that is more easily compromised.

Simply put, the plain envelope worked better. For Kerkinactie, this will save a lot of money and yield more donations in the future.

Note, however, that a Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey in 2004 revealed that the Dutch expect lower fundraising costs from religious charities. Higher perceived costs of fundraising have more negative effects on donations to religious charities than to secular charities.

Rene Bekkers is with ICS/Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, and may be reached at r.bekkers@fss.uu.nl. Olaf Crutzen is with Kerkinactie.

What's up online
By Dan Weeks

The Web site for Best Buddies is a great example of what you can do with Flash or a similar program. Their "home page hi-jack" or "splash page" (an introduction that precedes the home page) features a Keith Haring graphic that slowly changes colors, while U2's Bono croons the song "One" and less famous folk talk about what the programs mean to them. If you do use such a splash page, do as Best Buddies does, and offer your readers a quick exit.

Best Buddies enhances the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships and integrated employment. Founded in 1989 by Anthony Kennedy Shriver, Best Buddies is a vibrant, international organization that has skyrocketed from one original chapter to more than 1,000 middle school, high school, and college campuses across the country and at least 12 other nations. Check it out at www.bestbuddies.org.

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