November 2007
1. When to follow up with a phone call
By Steve Hitchcock
2. Where's Mal?
3. The art of asking
By Terry Murray
4. Why?
5. How much?
By Mal Warwick, Editor
6. Competition
7. 12 reasons lists suddenly stop producing
By Carol Enters
8. Join me at the Canadian Fundraising Congress
9. Video!
10. Challenging the myths about monthly giving
By Harvey McKinnon
11. Gross!
12. Copy Corner...Handwriting adds a personal touch
By Deborah Block and Paul Karps
13. Celebrities!
1. When to follow up with a phone call
By Steve Hitchock
Jay Craig of Shiloh Children’s Home in Missouri reports that his organization mailed an appeal to build a new home. He was disappointed in the return from that appeal. Shiloh has never called active donors.
So Jay asks, "Should we try to salvage our appeal by phoning our donors?" He’s worried Shiloh will get complaints.
Steve Hitchcock answers: I can assure Jay Craig that if his organization phones active donors, it will certainly get complaints. And gifts. And valuable information, too!
Successful fundraising always raises objections. In part, I’m convinced that donors complain because they really do want to send you additional gifts—but feel guilty because they’re unable to do so at that time.
Or perhaps donors are upset because they believe you’re unaware and unappreciative of their past gifts.
Whatever the case, complaints provide you an opportunity to get to know the donor better —and communicate your organization’s case more fully.
But back to the substance of Jay’s question: Does it make sense to follow up a mailing with a phone call?
Yes, here at Mal Warwick Associates, our clients regularly hire telephone fundraising firms to contact members and donors—to make sure they’ve received the appeal and to encourage the most generous gift possible, or simply to deliver a fresh new appeal. (It’s almost impossible these days to organize enough volunteers who can persist long enough to make a sufficient number of phone calls to reach a significant percentage of your donors.)
In general, we find that active donors tend to become more active if they receive phone calls twice a year. Of course, we make sure those donors who request not to receive phone calls are omitted from any telephone campaign. And the excellent telephone fundraising firms we work with also omit those individuals who have declined to make pledges over the phone.
When I talked with Jay by phone, I learned that his appeal asked donors to make a pledge of monthly contributions to support Shiloh’s building campaign. Thus it was understandable to me that this particular mailing didn’t produce the gross revenue of his previous appeals.
But the long-term revenue from those who did make monthly pledges may add up to make this one of Shiloh ’s most successful mailings.
Even if aggregate income from this package turns out to be disappointing, I’d urge Jay and other readers to avoid " blaming" the theme or focus of the mailing.
All too often, I hear fundraisers claming that a certain topic or slant was—almost always in hindsight—off the mark.
My conversations with donors suggest they are much more sophisticated and knowledgeable than we've given them credit for.
Instead of worrying about specific mailings, try to keep your eye on the larger picture. Focus on your overall direct response fundraising program.
For example, are you adding enough new donors or members? If not, then attrition may explain why appeal mailings are generating less income.
When it comes to special appeals (resolicitation mailings), the most important information is whether, as a group, they’re generating more net revenue than all the appeals last year.
With a planned program of acquisition, resolicitation, and renewal mailings—and phone calls, when appropriate—you maintain a strong and growing donorbase, one that produces increasing revenue each year.
Steve Hitchcock is the senior member of the Mal Warwick Associates consulting team. He may be reached at 2550 Ninth Street, Suite 103, Berkeley CA 94710, phone (510) 843-8888, fax (510) 843-0142, Web www.malwarwick.com, e-mail steve@malwarwick.com. Steve was a columnist for this newsletter for many years.
Article was first published in Mal Warwick's Newsletter July 1996 issue.
2. Where's Mal?
November 11-12, 2007 – Charleston SC
Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits
Pre-conference Workshop: How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters
Workshop: Crafting a Powerful Message to Win More Supporters for Your Cause
Site: Charleston Area Convention Center
More info
November 13, 2007 – Toronto ON
Canadian Fundraising Congress
Master’s Track: Raise More Money Through the Power of Word-of-Mouth
Ph.D. Track: Problem Solving for Advanced Practitioners
Site: Toronto Convention Centre, North Building
More info
November 27-30, 2007 – Mombasa, Kenya
Resource Alliance 14th East Africa Workshop
Opening Plenary: Emerging Big Ideas on the Global Arena
Plenary: Branding to Add Real Value to Your Appeal for Funds
Mini-course: Crafting a Message to Win More Supporters for Your Cause
More info
December 6, 2007 – Stockholm, Sweden
Swedish Fundraising Council
Two half-day workshops
More info
3. The art of asking
By Terry Murray
If you want to raise money, sooner or later you’ll have to learn to ask individuals—because that’s where the money comes from.
In the United States, gifts from living individuals account for more than three-quarters of all the money donated to nonprofit organizations. Bequests and other planned gifts push the total to more than four of every five dollars raised. In Canada and, increasingly, other countries too, a small picture is emerging.
It’s important, then, that we fundraisers keep uppermost in our minds the principal do’s and don’ts of raising money from individuals—and how those guidelines differ from one fundraising method to another.
The list below is only the beginning, of course. Each of these aspects of fundraising demands experience, insight, and a human touch-and a much deeper understanding of the fundamentals of the craft than these terse guidelines suggest. But, given all that, you can’t go far wrong if you keep these tips in mind.
Asking in the mail
To raise money by mail, it's important to:
Use emotion in your appeals
Ask for specific amounts
Focus on specific needs
Offer credit card options (and debit order options, too, in countries where that's viable)
Ask at least six times a year
Ask for interest in bequests
Asking on the telephone
Successful telefundraising requires a professional approach that involves either hiring a specialized telemarketing firm or using professionals to train and supervise paid or highly committed volunteer callers.
It also requires that you:
Ask first in a pre-call letter
Ask for a pledge over three to five years
Ask with trained callers
Ask for a decision and give options
Follow up the Ask promptly
Asking for major gifts
Ask face-to-face
Prepare your Ask well
Ask with the right team
Ask for the right amount
Know when to shut up
Ask for a decision date
Set up the next appointment
Asking for time and influence
Ask for a manageable time commitment
Ask for "moments in time"
Ask for recommendations
Ask for "door-openings"
Ask for executive expertise
Ask for lead gifts
Ask for bequests
Ask for age
Ask for confirmation
Ask for interest in estate planning
Ask for membership in a society
Ask for recommendations of friends
Asking corporations, trusts, and foundations
When seeking institutional support, keep in mind that there are potentially four different types of assistance you can secure:
Asking for money
Asking for partnerships
Asking for gifts-in-kind
Asking for volunteer time
Asking for corporate gifts
Ask for their proposal requirements
Ask for what interests them
Ask who else they support
Ask them to visit you
Ask for specific projects
Ask what recognition they want
Asking for partnerships
Ask what interests the potential partner
Ask for marketing policies
Ask about their customers and prospects
Ask where there is a match of your needs and theirs
Asking for gifts-in-kind
List everything you spend big bucks on
List all your major suppliers
List other suppliers of similar goods
Prepare your case for support
Prepare benefits and recognition options
Telephone for appointments
Go visit!
Asking for volunteer time
Ask for a "champion"
Ask for professional expertise
Ask for a loan of staff
Ask for board membership
Terry A. Murray is President, DVA Navion South Africa, P.O. Box 595, Rondebusch 7701, Cape Town, South Africa, phone 27-21-674-0803, fax 27-21-674-0805, e-mail tmurray@dvanavion.com.
Article was first published in Mal Warwick's Newsletter November 2002 issue.
4. Why?
For years now, I’ve been telling people who attend my workshops that the rising cost of acquiring new donors may have made it difficult for many organizations to justify continuing their direct mail fundraising programs if they count only the revenue that comes in the form of gifts by mail. In fact, in some cases, I’ve seen direct mail programs that realize a loss when viewed through that narrow lens.
Why, then, would it make sense for any organization to continue acquiring and resoliciting donors or members by mail?
Consider this recent experience of one of my company’s clients, a large, grassroots advocacy organization:
A donor first contributed a gift of $5 to the organization in 1984.
In the years that followed, ending only in 2006, that donor sent gifts of from $5 to $25 once or twice a year—a total of 26 contributions totaling just $425. That’s an average of less than $20 per year.
Then, in 2007, a bequest arrived. For $90,000. (Which, by the way, is an average of more than $3,900 per year.)
For an increasing number of nonprofit organizations, bequests are fast becoming the real payoff from direct mail fundraising. Ignoring their potential to fatten your group’s coffers can be a very big mistake.
—M.W.
5. How much?
By Mal Warwick, Editor
Direct mail testing can be frustrating. All too often, the results vary little no matter what changes you make in a package. A long run of meaningless tests may be almost enough to make you wonder if testing is really worthwhile after all.
Then something turns up in a routine test that restores your faith in the process.
More often than not, I’ve found, a test that actually works is likely to involve a change in the minimum suggested gift amount.
For example, in one recent test for a client, my colleagues at Mal Warwick Associates chose to test the value of a $35 initial gift Ask that was incorporated into the control package. They mailed three test panels of 30,000 packages each, testing the control versus two alternative formats for a $26.75 minimum Ask—one of which was highlighted with a hand-drawn circle on the response device, the other of which was similar but not highlighted. Here’s what happened:
|
Package |
Total gifts |
Average gift* |
Total revenue* |
|
$35_control |
143 |
$26.61 |
$3,692 |
|
$26.75_circled |
171 |
$25.20 |
$4,007 |
|
$26.75_not circled |
201 |
$25.31 |
$4,607 |
*in gifts of less than $100 each
Such wide variation in response is the exception rather than the rule in testing. But when it occurs, it’s important to pay attention!
Article was first published in Mal Warwick's Newsletter May 2000 issue.
6. Competition!
Get ready for even more competition in the mailbox! According to The
NonProfit Times, in an election year, the amount of direct mail increases from 40-60% in the first half of the year and can double in the second half. Consider, too, that 2008 is both a congressional and presidential election year. Let the competition begin!
7. 12 reasons lists suddenly stop producing
By Carol Enters
As a fundraising list broker, the question I’m most frequently asked is, "Why did that list suddenly stop producing?" The question arises after a mailer has successfully used names from a particular list—often for many years—but results suddenly take a nosedive.
Good, successful lists are terribly hard to find, and getting scarcer by the year. Before giving up on a list just because the response to one mailing is poor, consider the following 12 possible reasons why the list didn’t work for you:
The list has been over-used. (I suggest you let it rest for a mailing or two.)
Non-delivery. If you’ve received absolutely no response—not even a nixie (undeliverable mail returned by the postal service)—chances are those names were never delivered. Check the list owner for decoys.
The mailing date wasn’t protected, and you mailed at the same time as a competing appeal.
The list owner changed the top cut-off amount on the current names supplied. For example, you used to get $5 to $99.99 names, but this time you got $1 to $24.99.
The list hadn’t been cleaned or updated for awhile. Thus, you might even have been re-mailing the same names.
The mailer is no longer actively in the mails, so the names were getting stale.
The mailer changed its acquisition package from a straight approach to a sweepstakes or merchandise offer—or generated the new names by telephone or television instead of direct mail.
The mailer changed from a package containing a letter plus other contents to one containing only a single computer slip.
If the names are of subscribers, the editorial content of the publication might have changed since your last usage of the list. For example, a magazine targeting the mature female might have shifted focus to young housewives and mothers.
The list owner changed computer service bureaus—and the new vendor doesn’t know how to fulfill list orders properly.
Since the last mailing, your strategy (or your package) has changed substantially, so that the list and your offer are no longer a good match.
Remember, direct mail fundraising is an art, not a science!
Don’t forget: You spent a great deal of money testing and ordering your continuation on that list. Before you dump it for good, consider a retest; that’s almost always a wise investment.
Carol Enters founded the Carol Enters List Company (CELCO), now located in Fairfax, VA and led by Barbara Sims. Carol was long a leading figure in the direct mail fundraising field in the USA. She retired in 1993.
Article was first published in Mal Warwick's newsletter September 1993 issue.
8. Join me at the Canadian Fundraising Congress
Join Mal in Toronto November 13-15 at the Canadian Fundraising Congress.
Many consider this event to be the outstanding conference produced anywhere by a local chapter of the Association of fundraising Professionals.
9. Video!
Consultants Tom Bradford and Roger Craver of The Agitator have been big proponents of the use of online video by nonprofit organizations. As Bradford says in a recent post, it’s "crucial to master this medium for conducting your fundraising, advocacy, and educational efforts." Why such enthusiasm? According to the most recent statistics by comScore, 133.6 million Americans watched over 9 billion videos online in July. That’s 74.2% of all Internet users in the U.S. These viewers watched an average of more than three hours of video during the month. On average, this broke down to over two videos per day with a duration of 2.7 minutes each.
10. Challenging the myths about monthly giving
By Harvey McKinnon
Many nonprofits are reluctant to launch monthly giving programs. Too often, they fall prey to the mythology that has grown up about monthly giving. There are at least seven widespread myths:
1. "IT WON'T WORK WITH OUR DONORS"A few years ago a large European charity spent a fortune mailing an invitation package to its entire list with the wrong monthly donor proposition. It bombed. The organization concluded that its donors "wouldn’t go for a monthly donor giving program." Just two years later—after developing an effective proposition and a good Ask—it now makes more than 60% of its income from monthly donors . . . and the proposition grows every month.
2. "OUR DONORS ARE TOO OLD"I have a large U.S. nonprofit client with 30% of its donors aged 65 or older. Twenty-nine percent of its monthly sustainers are 65 or over—the same proportion.
Seniors are just as likely to pledge as your donors. I have clients with seniors who represent a greater proportion of monthly donors than their percentage in the donorfile.
3. "OUR DONORS ARE NOT COMMITTED ENOUGH"
My experience is that any organization can make a significant amount of money from this program. And you don’t know until you try it.
4. "WE TESTED, AND IT DIDN'T WORK"
This is by far the most irritating myth.
I remember a decade ago at a Direct Marketing Association meeting, the manager of one of Canada’s largest nonprofits stood up and said, "Personalization doesn’t work. We tried it." I thought he was one candle short of a chandelier. Under questioning, he revealed the details of his so-called personalization test. He simply addressed a donor as Mrs. McDonald versus Dear Friend—rather than testing copy variations based on Mrs. McDonald’s giving history. Yet, that manager was willing to pontificate publicly about the test. Worse, he abandoned his donors to "Dear Friend" letters for who knows how long. I tell this story because it’s far too common. People who do not know how or what to test may believe—based on faulty research—that something does or doesn’t work. When you test, you’ve got to do it properly.
5. "IT'S TOO MUCH WORK"You can contract out the EFT and credit card work to a service bureau. You could decide not to offer a check option to reduce staff time and costs. You could get a consultant to develop the strategy and creative work. Your only extra work will be spending the actual income.
6. "WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO IT"
Re-read the previous paragraph.
7. "IT'S A SMALL AMOUNT OF MONEY"
I worked with a medium-sized Australian nonprofit that went from no monthly donors to 11,512 in 11 years for an annual value of $3,492,381. This is in a country of 20 million people. And the program is still growing rapidly.
Foster Parents Plan of Canada, which is based on monthly donors, raises close to $80,000,000 annually—in a country of 30 million.
The success of your program will be based on many factors: the product, the offer, the benefits to the donor, the media you use, your budget, and the copy or pitch.
Your program will work if done well, and it will bomb if you do it badly.
Harvey McKinnon is President of Harvey McKinnon Associates, #330, 1985 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6J 4Y3, Canada, phone (604) 732-4351, fax (604) 732-4877, Web harveymckinnon.com, e-mail harvey@harveymckinnon.com.
Article was first published in Mal Warwick's Newsletter September 1997 issue.
11. Gross!
Not-for-profits contribute an average of 5% to the gross domestic product in the United States and seven other major nations. So finds a study by the John Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies as reported in DM News. Canada generated the highest amount at 7.3%, followed by the U.S. at 7.2%. Other countries studied include Japan (5.2%), Belgium (5%), New Zealand (4.9%), Australia (4.7%), France (4.2%), and the Czech Republic (1.3%).
12. Handwriting adds a personal touch
By Deborah Block and Paul Karps
In the never-ending search to give direct mail appeals a more personal look and feel, the use of handwriting for emphasis invariably comes up.
While some fundraisers see it as just another gimmick designed to fool the reader, we consider handwriting—when used appropriately and sparingly—as a highly effective way to warm a piece.
Sure, in reality the handwriting might be computer-generated. But so is a letter . . . even though we make it to look as though it just came out of a typewriter. (Out of a belief in the increasingly shaky proposition that anyone remembers what a typewriter is!)
The idea of adding handwriting is to give the impression that someone went the extra mile to take pen in hand.
Here, then, are 11 ways you can use handwriting to add a personal touch to an upcoming package:
Use a handwritten carrier teaser. This tactic works well when the return address includes a specific person’s name. For instance, if your Executive Director ’s name runs on top of your organization’s name and address, then she can proclaim, "Open to learn my urgent news" or "I wanted you to know . . . " Of course, the same person should also serve as your letter signer.
To add a sense of mystery to your carrier, especially if you’re using a celebrity letter-signer, use this person’s signature in the upper left corner. The rest of the envelope would then be blank. (Though postal regulations require that unless you’re mailing first class, you must also include the name and address of your organization. This then would go on the back flap.)
Start your letter—above the salutation—with a handwritten Johnson Box (or "eyebrow") for immediate impact.
Add hand underlining, starring, bracketing, and marginal comments to your copy. This can be particularly effective when your correspondence is in the form of a memorandum.
If your main letter is signed by one person and you’re including a memo by another, have the letter signer add a note to the top of the memo asking the donor to read this second component.
Close your letter with a handwritten P.S. for additional emphasis. We’ve seen some handwritten postscripts that fill half a page.
Include a handwritten lift note. But be sure the copy runs no more than two or three short paragraphs. Handwriting—no matter how tidy—is usually harder on the eyes than a "typewriter" font.
Consider handwritten captions for your photos. This is especially effective if you’re dropping in single shots and plan to use the backside for copy. The strategy also works well for a photo "diary" insert.
Upgrade your donors and hook prospects at a higher giving level—and jazz up your reply device—by including a handwritten line like "Your gift of $35 would really help." You can also circle a specific amount in your typeset gift string.
Handwrite a request on your reply envelope for donors to use their own stamps.
Best of all, add some handwriting on every component for a consistent, visually sparkling, and warmly personal package. But remember, you’ll want to use the same handwriting everywhere . . . and the same PMS (standard) color. Plus, you should make sure your handwriting is legible at a glance. Otherwise, you’ll lose whatever benefits you would have gained.
Good luck and good (hand)writing!
Copywriters Deborah Block and Paul Karps are partners in BK Kreative, 1010 Varsity Court, Mountain View CA 94040, phone (650) 962-9562, fax (650) 962-1499, e-mail bkkreative@aol.com. Deborah has been Managing Editor of this newsletter for more than 15 years.
Article was first published in Mal Warwick's Newsletter July 1999 issue.
13. Celebrities!
Which celebrity is considered to be the most effective spokesperson for charitable causes? According to a survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and recounted in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Jerry Lewis, the venerable fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, came in first. The Top 10 is rounded out, in order, by: Oprah Winfrey, Michael J. Fox, Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie, Bono, Lance Armstrong, Katie Couric, and Rosie O’Donnell.
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