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[ASK AN EXPERT] What Are The Pros And Cons Of Combining An Appeal Mailing With An Impact Report?
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Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity. Today’s question comes from a nonprofit employee who wants advice on whether it’s a good strategy to include your impact report with your appeal mailing:
Dear Charity Clairity,
We have started mailing quarterly impact reports to those midlevel and major donors who aren’t emailable, and emailing otherwise. USPS mailings are getting expensive and it has been suggested we might save money by including our next impact report (slated for dropping in Dec) in with our appeal – or perhaps AS the appeal, with an accompanying cover letter. This does not feel like a good strategy to me and I need to be able to articulate why. It seems to me the focus of this mailing needs to be on the call to action – which is to give. It is a time to make the case for what the donor’s money can do and – as awesome as our impact has been and continues to be – not what we have already done. (I’ve been including these reports with acknowledgement letters, which seems like a perfect touchpoint.) Thanks for any quick wisdom you can provide!
— Weighing Trade-offs
Dear Weighing Trade-offs,
You are in a pickle; one which all businesses face. And that is whether the upfront cost (spending) is justified by the back-end result (generated income).
Right now, the expense in question is a mailing. You note you’re mailing only to a subset of your donors. But you could easily ask this same question for all your donors. And that question is whether the inclusion of the impact report with the appeal will depress or boost fundraising results. If the former, then not spending on the separate impact report mailing would be a version of penny-wise/pound-foolish. If the latter, you might want to make the combo approach part of your overall strategy for all donors.
But… jumping into the deep end seems risky. How to mitigate this risk?
You may know where I’m going next: The only way to know for sure is to run an A/B test. If you randomly split your list and mail a combined impact report/appeal mail to half of them and separate mailings to the other half, you’ll be able to compare real-time results. But then you’ll need to know how to measure and evaluate those results to determine their validity and statistical relevance. And, it’s possible, the results may vary for donors of different amounts. There are firms, like NextAfter, that can help you with this.
Now let me offer you some of that “quick wisdom” you requested via some general rules:
- You largely need to spend money to make money. Trying to cut fundraising and marketing expenses too much is a “cut off your nose to spite your face” exercise. So, think twice before cutting back on communications – especially during the end-of-year season when people tend to do the lion’s share of giving.
- Enclosing anything in your fundraising appeal has a tendency to depress response. Why? As you suggest, the insert takes the focus away from your carefully crafted case for support and primary call to action. If you enclose the impact report with your appeal, it’s likely to include lots of information totally unrelated to your appeal. With appeals, less is more. Just a letter that is simple, easily skimmable, and strategically crafted
- Directing attention to your impact report from your email appeal has a tendency to depress response. For the same reason suggested above, I counsel folks to strip all tabs other than “give now” off their donation landing page. You don’t want people delaying action while they take time to “learn more,” “volunteer,” “subscribe,” or anything other than simply click and donate.
- Building a donor relationship requires multiple touch points over the course of the year. People should hear from you when you’re not asking for money. Impact reports are a form of gratitude, re-enforcing the “warm glow” donors felt when they made their gift. When you continue to fan the flames of passion, folks will be sufficiently warmed up when you send your appeal, such that they’ll be persuaded to give. When you mix the cultivation apple of the impact report with the solicitation orange of the appeal, you strip out the persuasion and ‘feel good’ that was the purpose of the report.
- Response rates to direct mail tend to be higher than email appeals. So, it behooves you to budget for appeal mailings. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t email as well –integrated, multi-channel marketing not only hedges your bets, but also works by reminding folks, multiple times, of your mission’s importance. NextAfter found that people who received some email communication throughout the year — but still only sent in checks when it was time to give — gave 90% more than those who didn’t get email communication. The beauty of direct mail is that people tend to keep it on their kitchen counter for days or weeks as they ponder their overall philanthropy for the year. Emails don’t last. They’re also subject to the recipient’s whims or mood of the day. Often they’re deleted without being read.
- Impact report and annual report mailings may merit the email treatment. As noted above, consistently emailed donors give more. And when it comes to slick, hard copy reports, many donors respond negatively. Not to mention fancy appeals that cost extra to mail (which is what an impact report disguised as the appeal would look like). Many donors don’t want their money spent this way. Some, of course, like hard copies. The best way to know is to survey your donors and ask them for their mailing preferences. You can run a quick, free survey using SurveyMonkey or GoogleDocs. This would also provide an opportunity for you to request email addresses for your midlevel and major donors who you currently aren’t emailing [just tell them you’d like to email future reports to use resources wisely and reduce waste].
Appeal letters are not about the organization’s accomplishments, awards, and victories. They’re about a specific problem, a specific solution, and how the donor can help bring that solution about. Generally, sharing one story is best. Impact reports, on the other hand, tend to share multiple stories.
— Charity Clairity (Please use a pseudonym if you prefer to be anonymous when you submit your own question, like “Weighing Trade-offs” did.)
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