Female Fundraising Charity Auctioneers
  • HOME
  • Services
  • Videos
  • ABOUT
    • Press
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Freebies
  • Contact

Direct Mail Fundraising Campaigns - 8 Tips for Successful Fundraising

4/27/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Direct mail appeals are retro fundraising at its best. This approach involves writing a short appeal (one or two pages) that builds an emotional connection between your donors and your nonprofit organization, and then asks them to make a donation. These appeals are sent by mail and can come in all shapes and sizes. They can be written as letters, postcards, or pamphlets. This is a time-tested, simple approach to engaging with, and raising money from, your donor base. While a direct mail campaign on its own may not be the most effective approach to reaching your fundraising goals, it can, and should, be a part of your larger fundraising strategy.
​

Before you undertake your next direct mail fundraising campaign, check out our list of do’s and don’ts for direct mail appeals. Make sure to read to the end for a handy checklist that will set you on the path to direct mail fundraising success in 2018 and beyond.
Picture
​DO’s of Direct Mail Appeals:
​
  • Do make it familiar. Donors, especially those who have been giving for a long time, are very familiar with being asked to give through the mail. They have seen postcards, letters, brochures, and pamphlets arrive in their mailbox year after year, from nonprofits that they currently support or have supported in the past. It’s not new or scary, and it is a fairly straightforward method of fundraising.
  • Do focus on the 50+ crowd. Direct mail campaigns work great with older demographics because they are very comfortable mailing in a check once a year in response to a mail appeal. This makes the direct appeal an effective way to touch base a few times a year with your older contributors, while fundraising along the way.
  • ​Do prime the pump. Direct mail appeals are an excellent way to share success stories from the past year. Always include a short story, told from a personal point of view, that details how previous donations helped your organization to change a life or achieve your goals. Not all direct mail campaigns need to have an ask attached. Consider surprising your donors by simply sharing your success stories and thanking them for their participation. Removing the ask from one or two direct mail pieces indicates that you appreciate your donors and want to communicate with them without asking for anything in return. As a bonus, you are also priming the pump for your next direct mail appeal.
  • Do run AB tests. Although too long to get into here, you should always AB test your direct mail pieces. For my free ultimate guide on AB testing your direct mail fundraising campaigns click here.
  • Do tell a story. When done well, storytelling is the best way to create an emotional response from your donors. Always include a compelling, emotional story told from a first person point of view in your direct mail pieces. This story will create an emotional connection and help build the momentum needed for people to give via a direct mail campaign.
  • Do “You.” Remember that this direct mail piece is going to be read by an individual who wants to make a difference. Craft/write your piece as though you were speaking to a single individual donor. Talk about how that single donation, no matter how big or small, can go a long way toward making a big difference in the lives of others and achieving success for the community.

Picture
DON’TS of Direct Mail Appeals:
​

DON’T THINK IT’S CHEAP. Direct mail campaigns can be anything but cheap. Set realistic expectations of the costs associated with a well-run direct mail fundraising campaign. Consider the cost of a copywriter and editor (if you don’t have one on staff). And don’t forget to factor in printing costs and postage (both ways).

DON’T SET UNREACHABLE GOALS. Direct mail appeals have a very low response rate. According to Mobile Cause, successful direct mail appeals only have a return rate of 6%. So, for every 100 appeals you mail out, only three will be returned with a donation. This is just one reason why direct mail appeals function best as part of a larger fundraising strategy.

DON’T BELIEVE IT’S EASY FOR DONORS. Direct mail appeals are not easy for your donors. Stop and think about how many steps it takes for each donor to complete their donation.
  • First, they have to open the mail - and let’s be honest here, not many people open the mail these days.
  • Second, they need to read the letter or brochure included in your direct appeal, and they must form an emotional connection to the story presented. This is what prompts them to make a donation.
  • Third, donors will need to fill out the response card, find their checkbook,and write you a check.
  • Finally, and this part is really important, they need to mail it back to you.
Simply put, there are way too many opportunities for the donor to get distracted and put their donation off until later. When this happens the likelihood of the donation getting made falls precipitously, even though your appeal successfully fostered that emotional connection. At this point, most nonprofits decide to send a follow-up direct mail piece which only starts the cycle all over again.

Picture
Checklist for Creating Awesome Direct Mail Pieces:

  • Personalize them. Use the mail merge function to add a donor's first or first and last name to the appeal letter.
  • Include images. Too much text is difficult and boring to read. Images break up the text and add visual impact to the story you are trying to tell. Highlight, italicize, or bold all important information. This makes it easy for the person skimming your direct mail piece to pull out all the pertinent information.
  • Be direct with your ask. Include a very direct ask for contributions and be very clear about what your organization is looking for from your donors. Consider what your nonprofit organization is looking for in an end-of-year gift. Are you looking for a pledge renewal? Are you looking for a first-time gift? A secondary gift? A special campaign gift? Make it very clear to your donors what you want them to give and what this money will be used for.​

Picture
  • Include an online option. include online giving opportunities, via the organization’s website, to make it easier for donors to give. Instead of relying on your donors to fill out and return the response card, include your website somewhere on the appeal letter and instruct any donors who may not feel comfortable giving through the post to visit your donation page.
  • Collect the right data. If you do have a response card be sure to ask for the following information: name, complete address, email address, and phone number.
  • Include a monthly giving option. Make sure to include a checkbox that says, “I would like this to be a monthly recurring gift.” Getting monthly recurring gifts from your donors is a great way to keep funds rolling in all year long. Include the opportunity for donors to make their donations via check or credit card.
  • ​Ask for matching donations. Include a checkbox that asks donors if their employer or their spouse’s employer will match their gift. And don’t forget to always include your tax ID number and where donors can go to get more information about your organization.

Picture
Personally, I love how easy direct mail campaigns can be on an often stretched thin nonprofit organization. Direct mail appeals can be created quickly, easily, and entirely in-house. There is no need to hire a copywriter and/or graphic designer. There are tons of free online tools for creating beautiful documents and images to use in your direct mail pieces. Once created, your nonprofit can print the materials in-house or locally at a print/copy shop, and send it on its way to your donor list. And, if your nonprofit is already familiar with conducting direct appeals, then there is little to no training required to pull one off.

Check out these free online resources that we recommend to clients looking to create any type of campaign.

Don’t forget to get your copy of my
free ultimate guide on AB testing for direct mail fundraising campaigns.


For more than ten years, fundraising expert Abra Annes has been a leader in the nonprofit world, consulting with top nonprofit organizations and speaking at national and local conferences. As one of the top charity auctioneers, Abra has conducted hundreds of charity auctions – raising millions of dollars for a variety of nonprofits, schools, and charity organizations every year.
​

Abra is a member of the National Auctioneers Association and is one of 28 people in California to have their Benefit Auction Specialist designation. A gifted public speaker, she regularly conducts workshops on fundraising auctions, and is a sought-after speaker at fundraising events both locally and nationally as well as an active participant in the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
0 Comments

Crowdfunding for Nonprofits - Is it Right for Your Organization?

4/13/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Has your board ever brought forward the idea of crowdfunding? If they have, it is most likely because a board member saw something via social media and got excited. And now, at your board meeting, they are touting the benefits of crowdfunding and ensuring everyone that this “could go viral.”
​

Most people look at crowdfunding websites as a magic panacea for nonprofit fundraising. To the untrained eye, this certainly seems to be the case. As someone familiar with the philanthropy and fundraising spheres, I know that this is anything but true. Successfully raising money on crowdfunding sites requires an extreme amount of dedication both from the organization and from their board, staff, and volunteers as well as active, engaged social media networks. According to a recent study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, more than 90% of GoFundMe campaigns never meet their goal. Sadly, the more immediate and tragic the need, the more successful the fundraising campaign usually is. If your nonprofit is playing around with the idea of utilizing crowdfunding sites as a part of your larger fundraising strategy, you need to be honest with both yourself and your board about the reality of these campaigns. Here are both sides of the crowdfunding coin so that you can accurately explain to your board the pros and cons of hosting a crowdfunding campaign for your nonprofit. ​

Why Your Nonprofit Should Try a Crowdfunding Campaign:
  • There’s a high potential for reaching a new audience. Crowdfunding campaigns are known for the ability to reach across networks and bring in donations from new people. These are people who may have never heard of your nonprofit and may have never found you on their own. If your nonprofit is looking to expand its reach outside of your existing donor network, crowdfunding (when done well) does a great job of bringing in a new audience. ​​
Picture
  • Crowdfunding is a great short and sweet fundraising method. Most crowdfunding platforms offer a quick road to success, if your organization comes prepared. However, like most projects, the prep work required prior to the launch of your crowdfunding campaign is difficult and time consuming. Once up and running (again if you have prepared well), your nonprofit can raise funds in record time.
Picture
  • Crowdfunding is hugely popular with millennials. As the most connected and tech savvy generation yet, millennials are more likely than other donor groups to engage with online fundraising. According to Fundly, one of the most popular crowdfunding sites, 71% of millennials have participated in a crowdfunding campaign for a nonprofit organization. If attracting next-gen donors is important to your organization, crowdfunding is a great option.
Picture
Why Your Nonprofit Should NOT Try a Crowdfunding Campaign:
  • Your staff and board are already stretched too thin. Crowdfunding requires that your board and staff dedicate the necessary time to preparing and launching the campaign. As mentioned before, crowdfunding appeals are very time consuming when done properly. I repeat: crowdfunding appeals are VERY TIME CONSUMING. Those nonprofit organizations with the most successful crowdfunding campaigns spend weeks, if not months, preparing a launch plan for their campaign. Additionally, these nonprofits continue to update their social media pages daily with new and varied content after the campaign launch. So if you don’t have the time to dedicate to running a crowdfunding campaign on a daily basis, I suggest skipping it.
​​
  • You think crowdfunding is a low cost method of fundraising. Crowdfunding websites are not free and depending on how much time and effort you put into your launch, they can end up being a very expensive method of fundraising. Although setup is free, crowdfunding sites charge fees for the privilege of collecting donations through their site. In most cases this amounts to an 8% cut of all the money raised during your campaign.  For example, if someone donates $100 through a crowdfunding site, you only end up with $92. Based upon the time and effort that your organization put into this campaign, losing $8 off the top is a hard pill to swallow. In the long run, you would have been better off pushing donors to your website where you could retain 100% of the dollars donated. If you aren’t interested in splitting up your donated funds, crowdfunding is not for your organization. ​​

Picture
  • Your organization is looking for FAST MONEY. Did you know that it takes most crowdfunding platforms over a month to cut your organization a check for what you have raised? Yep! That’s right: an entire month. So while you see the dollars growing towards the stated goal on your crowdfunding page, your organization won’t have immediate access to those funds. If you need to use the dollars quickly, take a pass on crowdfunding.
​​
  • You just know your campaign will go “viral.” If I had a dollar for every time one of my nonprofit clients told me their video was so good it would go viral, I could stop working forever. Take a moment and log on to any crowdfunding site. Take a peek at which campaigns are doing well and what sections the top fundraisers are in. You’ll notice that the nonprofit section is third, sometimes fourth, at best. The top sections on crowdfunding sites are consistently medical emergencies and memorial funds. And by the way, there are thousands of fundraisers going on at any one time. Competition on these sites is fierce. Your nonprofit organization will be going up against people with immediate, attention-grabbing needs: kids with cancer, people injured in horrific accidents, survivors of mass shootings. So while your nonprofit’s need for more vaccines for sick puppies might sound great in the boardroom, the reality is that when competing for donor eyeballs and wallets, this need is likely to lose out over the stories of individuals who have suffered immensely. ​

Picture
  • You’ll gain lots of new die-hard donors. People who donate through crowdfunding campaigns are NOT new LONG-TERM donors. I haven’t found any research to support this, but based on my extensive experience, most people that donate to your crowdfunding campaign are not likely to become repeat donors. Crowdfunding is based on the peer-to-peer fundraising method, which means that the majority of new donors are compelled to donate by their direct/personal connection to an individual who has already donated to your organization and is making the call/ask for donations online. Once that direct/personal connection is gone, it is highly unlikely that any amount of direct mail, emails, or other type of donor cultivation will connect them to your organization. ​
​​
  • Crowdfunding is not a one way street. The minute you start asking people online to donate to your nonprofit crowdfunding campaign, be prepared to have the asks start rolling in for you. The peer-to-peer model of crowdfunding is a two-way street. It is assumed that if you donated to my cause, I will donate to yours. Think twice about this method of fundraising. Will your board members and volunteers be making more donations than they are bringing in? Would it have been easier to reach your fundraising goals by having all involved increase their own donations by a small amount?

Crowdfunding may seem like a great idea on the surface, and in certain situations it can definitely help people achieve their fundraising goals. However, running a successful crowdfunding campaign takes a lot of work, both from the organization and from their social media followers. This type of fundraising is a full-time job. Your campaign needs to be tended to each and every day if it is going to thrive. For many nonprofits, this is simply not going to happen. They are often operating with a very limited staff who, quite frankly, need to be spending their time on other things. If your organization does have the manpower and social media reach to launch a successful crowdfunding campaign, then by all means go for it! For the majority of nonprofits, there are other more worthwhile methods of fundraising that may prove more effective.

For more than ten years, fundraising expert Abra Annes has been a leader in the nonprofit world, consulting with top nonprofit organizations and, speaking at national and local conferences. As one of the top charity auctioneers, Abra has conducted hundreds of charity auctions – raising millions of dollars for a variety of nonprofits, schools, and charity organizations every year.

Abra is a member of the National Auctioneers Association and is one of 28 people in California to have their Benefit Auction Specialist designation. A gifted public speaker, she regularly conducts workshops on fundraising auctions, and is a sought-after speaker at fundraising events both locally and nationally as well as an active participant in the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
0 Comments

Will Donors Say "No" to a Pregnant Charity Auctioneer?

4/5/2018

0 Comments

 
​I'm pregnant. Like, super-duper pregnant, ready to pop pregnant. When I stepped on stage last weekend at a large San Francisco Gala, the crowd didn't know what to think. And quite honestly, neither did I.
​
It turned out to be a record-breaking night of fundraising for my long-time client. I'm not sure if it was the new program style, the room layout, or my enormous belly that made the difference - but it was amazing! It turns out, this crowd loved a big, pregnant auctioneer unafraid to put it all out there.
Generosity Auctions is the leading Charity Auctioneer and Nonprofit Consulting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. Generosity Auctions is the premier choice for Non-Profit Organizations looking to maximize their event fundraising through Charity Auctions and Fund-A-Need. Together with their clients, Generosity Auctions has raised over $80,000,000!!!
0 Comments

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All
    Boards And Committees
    Client Testimonials
    Corporate Sponsorship
    Donor Outreach And Appreciation
    Fund A Need Auctions
    Fund-A-Need Auctions
    Fundraising Ideas
    Fundraising Personal Blog
    Fundraising - Personal Blog
    In My Opinion
    Inside My Business
    Live Auctions
    Nonprofit Strategy
    Online Auctions
    Q&A With A Charity Auctioneer
    Raffles
    School Auctions
    Silent Auctions
    Volunteers

    RSS Feed