Direct mail is alive and kicking
Before you throw the direct mail baby out of the fundraising bath and invest all your budget in social media or face to face, remember that mail is still the bedrock of most charities’ individual income streams.
Two years ago I started working with one charity client to increase the income from their direct mail programme. It was just about the time when the sector was jumping up and down about social media and you couldn’t move for seminars and workshops on ‘the next big thing’. There is a real temptation to lose focus here. The massive increase in the number of so-called social media consultants and digital marketing consultants is not a guide as to how to spend your fundraising budget. It is an additional channel not a replacement one.
In the meantime, direct mail is alive and well. We have seen our clients achieve annualised increases of 15% income growth and more on their direct mail – with careful planning and by focusing on loyalty this is all possible. And you don’t need to be a large brand to achieve this either. There are some charities that are blaming a downturn in mail income on the recession and on the economic climate. But it is possible to find new donors, cultivate them and do so at a profit, even in these hard times. Direct mail is alive and doing well.
What does ‘major’ mean?
I am often asked ‘what is your definition of ‘major’?’ in reference to developing a major donor programme.
The way that charities usually define it is by a specific amount; “any donor who gives over £1,000″ for example. There are a number of problems with this approach. Firstly, it excludes any donor who gives regular amounts cumulatively below that level. So, a donor who gives £300 per month is a more likely candidate but would be missed on the ‘largest gift’ cut. There is another problem with this approach.
What if there are 500 donors who have given £1,000+ and there is only 1 major donor fundraiser? It is not possible to adequately devote the time and attention to developing a personal relationship with all 500 donors. They require further qualification.
I have always found the best approach to start with the largest donors cut by largest AND cume giving and work down. Incidentally most direct marketing reports start from lowest to highest so you need to request an upside down report. Then it is important to run at least 3 or 4 years’ data to look for patterns. In most reports that I view there are large annual gaps — the result of a lack of ongoing donor relationship building. This is especially the case where charities build their major donor programmes on events, dinners, and Balls. It is very rare to find many donors from these events who turn out to be consistent, worthwhile, engaged and committed donors.
When you have identified your caseload, you will find that there will be approximately 100 donors on there that are capable of being managed by each full-time fundraiser. That is how I define ‘major’, by the available internal resource. So, 2 full-time MD fundraisers will give us 200 donors by definition.
In addition to those donors who are qualified, I would also have a further 20% of unqualified that will come onto the caseload once they have been qualified. But remember, the donors on your caseload are actual donors who have given – by cume value. They are not prospective donors that have been screeened by a wealth overlay. Those donors will remain on a prospect list.
So start to look at your definition in more of a multi-dimensional way than simply by single largest gift and always focus on those donors who can be cultivated to give on more than a one-off gift basis.
