Amplify articles

I have never responded to a direct mail appeal.

While I am embarrassed and I feel guilty that I haven’t been practicing what I preach, I’m sure that many other fundraisers have also never picked up a pen, filled in the donation form, enclosed it in the freepost envelope provided along with their gift, and popped it into the nearest letter box.

If you fall into this category, I encourage you to give it a go today.

Though we may not represent the traditional charity audience, going through the process of donating by mail a very interesting exercise.

1. I kept the letter and donation form for TWO months

In the back of my mind I had already decided to respond to the letter I received on April 15th. And though I received two appeals since receiving the first one, I kept the first front of mind by leaving it on the floor of my office.

What insights can we gain from this?

• People are probably reminded by subsequent mailings and waves. This includes donor care and stewardship communications
• It is important that each mailing and wave has its own appeal code and that each gift is recorded against the specific form they respond to
• I felt guilty about having not donated every time I saw the letter in my office. Remember, your supporters often keep appeals, sometimes for many months. Don’t be afraid to reference those appeals and the stories they contain. Tap into the decision to donate which many of them may have already made
• Guilt is the fundraiser’s ally. Your objective shouldn’t be to induce guilt – the guilt is already felt by your supporters who wish they could do more.

Your objective should be to give supporters the opportunity to feel good about what they can do to help

2. It felt like a chore to get up and find a pen and my credit card

Don’t underestimate the amount of effort involved in responding to an appeal. To get someone to take action and get up off their chair, your letter must be very motivating. Effective creative is crucial.

I also kept getting distracted by things. Which is also an insight into the challenge of working from home…

3. I had to enter another room

Fundraising has many associations with psychology but there is one I hadn’t come across until I started to fill in this appeal: What happens when a donor enters another room?

• It’s known as the “Doorway Effect”, and it reveals some important features of how our minds are organised:

…a woman meets 3 builders on their lunch break. “What are you doing?” she asks. “I’m putting brick after sodding brick on top of another,” sighs the first. “I’m building a wall,” is the simple reply from the second. But the third builder swells with pride and replies: “I’m building a cathedral!”

• The important point here is CONTEXT. Provide your supporters with a tangible reason to give and show them a vision of what they are about to help build and they will be more engaged, and less likely to succumb to the doorway effect.

4. Filling in my credit card details was a challenge

I am not a neat writer.

• I found it incredibly difficult to write my credit card number in the tiny boxes
• I also worried that because my AMEX has 15 numbers instead of 16 whether I needed to put the numbers in a particular format
• I overcame these doubts and I wrote as neatly as I could but…

…how many of our 75+ supporters struggle with charity forms?

• There was barely enough room for my name and signature. Thankfully my name is reasonably short. Are we discouraging people with long names, married couples with joint accounts or people with hyphenated surnames from completing donation forms. I suggest we are
• I chose “My choice” but when I wrote in my give amount there wasn’t enough space to write all the zeros (not really, but a longer line is better)

5. Did I feel GOOD about responding to the appeal by mail?

The only time I felt like I was doing good was when I actually wrote the gift value onto the donation form.

• This could give some insight into the difference between donors who tick the value boxes and those who write their own amount
• The extra action that is involved in writing your own gift amount could point to a more engaged and therefore potentially more loyal supporter

Has anyone ever analysed the behaviour of those who write their own amount vs those who tick one of the ask prompts?

6. On the way to the post box…

I had always thought that the act of walking to a letter box and posting a gift to my favourite charity would be part of the feel-good process. Now I’m not so sure.

I didn’t feel connected to the charity when I put the letter into the box. In fact, the first time I passed the letterbox I completely forgot that that was what I went outside to do.

For me, the most important learning from this exercise is that keeping the donor’s attention is critical. And I mean at every point in the process – from fetching the mail, while reading the letter, getting the pen and credit card, filling in the form, putting it into the BRE and right up to the eventual action of walking to a letterbox.

Final thought

If, like me, your supporters are the most actively engaged and connected with the process while physically writing their details and ticking donation boxes, what can you do to your appeals to improve them?

It’s impossible not to be moved by this thank you email and its powerful video.

What ingredients set this thank you video apart from the rest?

1. Simple message: clear, engaging copy. Remains true to the single objective – to thank supporters.

2. Great email address line: that invites the readers’ enquiry  “See why this village is jumping for joy”

3. Focus on an Individual boy: This is a story that reflects thousands of operations, millions of lives and whole continents of human beings. And yet, we are told of our immense impact as donors through the eyes of a single boy and his elated village. The hope, love and future that fills this village with joy is implied far beyond the single story:  “Watch a whole village Celebrate one boy’s sight” .

4. Masterful storytelling: Happiness and joy is balanced with the story of Leo’s blindness, a mother’s fear and courage to never give up hope. The hero, of course, is Professor Fred Hollows his voice links the Leo’s story to the power of sight, the impact of the organisation’s work and the involvement of supporters through their gifts.

Advice for Small Charities: If you’ve never asked your supporters for a gift by direct mail, it’s time for a re-write

If you are a small charity and you haven’t made a direct ask for a donation in your direct mail appeals, now is the time to change the story.

1. Small steps – Ask for a small gift 

As your first appeal with a direct ask, you will need to establish an appropriate ask level.

Start with a small value – one that is tied to the need: “Your gift of $23.70 will pay for…”

Ensure you position that ask early in the letter – tell the reader what the organisation needs. Repeat it two or three times so that readers who skim will see what you are asking for. The low ask figure will help you identify the average gift level and will tell you how much to ask each individual for in future campaigns.

2. Segment your audience

Don’t send the same thing to all your supporters. Base the communication on their relationship with your charity. If they have given a major gift, take the time to hand sign, or even handwrite the letter.

Supporters who have made a gift before should be thanked for their support.

3. Watch the clock

Take note of the time you spend on the appeal. Every hour you spend is an investment- just like the cost of postage, printing or copywriting. Establishing the true cost of the appeal will help you manage expectations and show the board the real value of a direct mail appeal.

4. Keep it simple

If you haven’t sent a dedicated appeal to your supporters before, you should keep it simple. A well-written letter, a clean and easy to follow donation form, and a reply-paid envelope are the essentials.

5. Borrow from the copywriting professionals

Don’t reinvent the wheel. The best fundraising letters are based on a formula invented in the 19th century.

Read examples from other charities and apply a similar structure and approach.

6. Get Up, Close & Personal

An appeal letter is a direct conversation between two people – in this case, the signatory and a supporter. It should be as near as possible to a face-to-face conversation; personal, honest, engaging and human.

7. Review the results

Calculate the time you have spent on the job, the cost of putting it together and compare that to the income you received.

Look at the specific segments to understand how different groups responded. Establish an Ave gift and a response rate for each segment.

These measures will form the basis for your future appeals. Make sure you record and keep important information about the appeal income, time spent, cost to produce, segments and criteria for those segments, mail date of the appeal, as well as gift date and value information.

8. Shout about your Success

Present the results of your first appeal to the board. Demonstrate the effectiveness of the ask. Share anecdotal evidence from supporters about being asked by your charity. Manage perceptions of complaints by comparing the number of negative with positive responses to the campaign. Compare the income and effort expensed in this appeal, to your investment and return from non-ask activities.

Present your plan for the next appeal and make sure the board is supportive of further direct mail asks, based on the success of this appeal.

If you are a small charity considering producing your first appeal, please get in contact and I will share my advice. 

If you have finished this years’ tax appeal and you would like a second point-of-view, send me a copy and I will gladly give you feedback.

Small charity database = no benefit of segmentation, right? Wrong

Selecting your Tax Appeal audience shouldn’t be a game of Drunken Darts

Segmentation is your friend. It will save you money, provide the basis for measurement and learnings, and ensure your communication with supporters is as effective as possible. Segmentation will provide you with the basis for achieving strategic growth from your database.

Basic segmentation will give you a clear, invaluable view of who your supporters are.

Where to start?

1. Categorise broad segments and 

• Define the supporter types based on their engagement
• Donors, Bequest pledgers, monthly regular givers, very large donations ($10k+), corporate and trust donors, event participants, volunteers, campaigners/supporters, clients

2. Introduce Hierarchy

• Prioritise the supporter types based on their engagement
• A Bequest pledge is a more important relationship than a regular gift
• If supporters have more than one engagement, the most important engagement should take priority – and your communication should speak to them based on that engagement

3. Add Recency Frequency Value 

• For those supporters who have made a cash donation
• Recency of last single cash gift by months (0-12, 13-24, 25-36 etc)
• Frequency of giving – gave once, or have given multiple times
• Value of the last single cash gift

Then what?

If you have never done a mailing before, send your appeal to everyone, ensuring they are allocated a segment. Then measure results .

This will establish a baseline expectation for response and income across the segments – ready for you to apply the learnings t0 your next appeal

If you have produced a mailing before, but you didn’t have a segmentation system in place, consider excluding the people on your database who have never given a gift or made a meaningful engagement with your organisation. There is no value in contacting people who have never shown interest in your cause and have not responded when you gave them the opportunity to do so.

A Final Word

The most important part of the segmentation process is to produce institutional knowledge. And the key to retaining this knowledge is recording the brief, results and learnings in a clear and concise document. 

Keep everything – including who you contact and the segments each individual corresponded to.

Speak to me if you would like any advice on producing your appeal, who you should include and how to apply an effective segmentation strategy.

Let’s retire the term “NEWSLETTER”. Great examples of newsletters should not contain news, they should be filled to the brim with STORIES.

Stories of passion and triumph, heart-break and accomplishment, which connect with the people who have made those outcomes possible. These stories reaffirm your supporters’ decision to give to your charity. A great newsletter will show donors what their gifts have achieved and make them feel involved in your cause and responsible for the outcomes that are achieved.

The supporter newsletter is a stewardship tool that updates donors on the impact of their giving.

Is your supporter Newsletter written with your supporters in mind?

The ingredient that all great newsletters will share is a complete devotion to the audience – they will refer to successes and events as the result of their contribution and they won’t describe outcomes as the charity’s achievement.

They will also use the word “YOU” and “YOUR” often. 

At the heart of a good Newsletter is the objective to thank supporters.

If your newsletter is sharing the accomplishments of your organisation, it is not acting as a stewardship tool. It isn’t supporter centric and it won’t instil readers with the warm and fuzzy feelings that it should.

If your newsletter is a device used to ask for donations, then it being under-utilised and your appeals programme is less effective than it could be.

Rather than “Newsletters” let’s call them Supporter Updates

To read a fantastic example, see the RSPCA (UK) Animal Guardian half yearly newsletter from 2009, which was developed by Whitewater for confirmed and prospective legacy givers.

In the current climate, as international NGOs compete with one another for donors’ funds; as board directors demand growth akin to that of the publicly trading corporations that they came from; as governments preach austerity and cut humanitarian aid by billions of dollars, it could be a good idea to revisit the pros and cons of an alternative to the foreign aid model – particularly in Africa.

Dr. Dambisa Moyo, global economist and author, has challenged the model as stifling growth and fuelling corruption. Does the aid get to the people who need it most? According to Dambisa Moyo, only 20c on each $ provided to Africa will reach the intended beneficiaries. Is this a necessary cost investing in Africa’s future? Or is the developed getting it wrong?

Is Aid Killing Africa?

“Removing aid will hurt the African elite most and they would probably lose their bank accounts in Geneva.”

You can purchase Dead Aid here: http://bit.ly/22q8Nhj

And watch a debate including Hernando de Soto / Dambisa Moyo (Pro) and Stephen Lewis / Paul Collier (Con). here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWlLE7IohXo

Man in the Mirror.

Those who remember the 1988 video to promote the song will recall images of starving children, of old men in soup queues and evicted families pushing belongings along in shopping carts. That year, MTV reflected the horrors of the 20th century – of poverty, famine and genocide – to an audience of millions of teenagers.

Does Man in the Mirror have a negative or positive effect on audiences? Do viewers feel overwhelmed and despairing? Or are we encouraged to feel empowered to do something?

At the same time that MJ was at the top of the charts, Australian Sponsor-a-Child campaigns showed images of African children near-death and we were told that if we gave just $29 a month, we would save a life.

Today, aid organisations rarely portray the people that need our help as actually needing our help. Instead, child sponsorship advertising will focus on the outcomes and solutions.

I’d like to understand more about the philosophy of showing positive messages, rather than the need. Did organisations like World Vision and Oxfam make a strategic decision in order to combat audience apathy? Was there a belief that persistent negativity would fail to tell the whole story and were there concerns that this would have consequences for future giving?

Did donors respond in focus groups: “I don’t like to see negative images on TV”? Did they say that starving children would not make them want to give?

If you show only the solution, your audience will not feel compelled to respond and fewer people will donate. As fundraisers, marketers and communicators, we all understand this, yet that knowledge is not often reflected.

It might be true to say that negative messages can discourage people from giving and even influence despair.

Perhaps negative messages give people the impression that the problem is unsolvable.

Along with apathy, a perception that the ‘problem is too big to fix’ is a charity’s worst enemy. And today, audiences are bombarded by problems that are too big to fix.

Footage of the war in Syria; the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and pictures of people fleeing in their millions is experienced by audiences between episodes of The Big Bang Theory, over bowls of Cornflakes, or on You-Tube. Are these images – presented in a ‘business-as-usual’ context – normalising death and suffering and excluding the human story from the narrative?

Does Michael’s video provide a Need and Solution dynamic? What emotions does it evoke in audiences? 

To only show the positive outcome of a story is the same as only showing the starving children in need.

By not reflecting the whole story, aid organisations are providing inadequate context. The Need or Problem is absent from the narrative.

It’s impossible for armchair viewers to identify the relationship between African families drowning in the Mediterranean on CNN, and a drinking well in a Somali village that means a little girl doesn’t have to walk 30kms a day to get water.

The reason people aren’t able to connect with refugees fleeing Syria is the same reason that they struggle to understand why Jorge in Bolivia needs their help. Without the broader narrative, audiences are being asked to fill in the blanks. Child sponsorship needs to be presented within a context of Need, Hope and Solution. 

Man in the Mirror is not reflecting anything that we cannot already see on television. However, audiences are not expected to make the connection between poverty, death and famine and what they can do to help. Instead, images of starving children reflect a clear Need which is answered by a Solution. The story inspires us and we are invited to play a role in the solution, rather than to be shown the end result without any context.

It wasn’t enough that the supermarket aisles were plastered with reminders.  I had to ask Siri how many days until Christmas and the answer is 57.  That will terrify some fundraisers who haven’t yet written their Christmas appeal.

If you are yet to write an appeal letter or email to send to supporters, then the following Quick-Fix structural guide might help save you from the proverbial grinch.

Write a personal letter – in the voice of your CEO or a senior figure at your charity – directly from him or her to your readers.

The following structural guide can apply to email or direct mail appeals.

Introduce with Emotion and that Express the Problem

Introduce the case story – ideally through a quote or an emotional excerpt from the individual’s story.

Introduce the NEED – what is the problem that has caused the case story to be in this situation? ASK supporters for their help to meet the demands of this need.

Story: Bring the need to LIFE

Share the details of his or her challenge and their heart-wrenching tale. The signatory is a storyteller who has witnessed the person’s pain and expresses the emotion of the story using their own feelings.

Tell the case story’s specific need. What does he or she require? What is their situation? What will happen if the CHARITY isn’t there to support them? What item, programme or service will benefit them?

Solution = YOU

How much money will the programme or service need and how will supporters’ gifts contribute to towards that target?

e.g. “CHARITY will rescue 5,000 abandoned or neglected dogs and cats this summer. Last year this programme cost $1.5m over the Christmas period and the strain on the teams of Inspectors and shelter volunteers will be tremendous in the coming months. I need to raise that money – and more – before Christmas so we can meet the demands this year.”

“Your gift of $750 will help me to keep one of our rescue vans on the road for two days.> OR A gift as small as $25 will go towards the cost of keeping Inspectors on the road during the challenging summer days ahead.”

Outline the success story – Evidence of track record

Why should the CHARITY be trusted with this task and with your gift?

• How many lives have been saved by similar research in the past?
• Are there any testimonials or quotes from real people whose lives were saved by other research by CHARITY?
• What do experts say about this programme? Will scientists point to the potential life-saving results if the research goes ahead?

Bring the donor into the heart of your Success Story 

Tie the “track record” and proof of programme success back to the supporter’s previous gifts.

“None of this would have been possible without you. Which is why I’m asking again for your support.

I can’t do this without you – and there are so many more children like Nathan who are waiting for treatment.

Please support my appeal for children like Nathan and I’ll give him a better Christmas, and some hope for the future.”

Thank and Sign-off

“Thank you again. Merry Christmas”

PS

If a supporter reads any part of your appeal, it is likely to be the introduction or PS. So make sure it has both, and make sure they are impactful.

“It’s not everyday you get a chance like this to give a family the gift of hope. At Christmas time, their need is all the more greater, and your support at its most crucial. I hope you are able to help again this year.”

How do Australia’s largest NFPs communicate their cost effectiveness?

Are the most sophisticated fundraising organisations supporting positive messaging around the cost of fundraising? Or are they perpetuating a negative, misinformed perception that is harming the sector as a whole?

The best fundraising in Australia comes from both large, sophisticated charities as well as smaller, more agile and necessarily frugal ones.

The same is true for the approach that the sector takes when approaching the question of cost effectiveness.

This survey conducted last month compares the use of Cost of Fundraising messaging and infographics across the largest and most visible not-for-profits across the sector.

By comparing where on the website an organisation communicates their Cost of Fundraising, one can get a sense of how much value is associated with this message by each organisation.

Many organisations produce graphics to help express visually where the money goes and to show their cost effectiveness. It aims to combat a perceived negative public sentiment that suggests charities aren’t spending enough on the cause.

Are organisations being foolish to spend money on producing messages that communicate how great they are at saving money? Or are we assuming that audiences – our supporters – are fools?