Small Nonprofit Series: Our Nonprofit Is Too Small to Use Direct Mail

4 Strategies for Direct Mail Fundraising – Including a Phone Script!

Just about no nonprofit is too small for direct mail. What it really comes down to is, how and where do you want to invest your fundraising dollars.

Image by Dirk Wouters from Pixabay

Since you do have to fundraise, consider direct mail as one viable option among many. Is it more expensive than email and social media? Certainly. Am I trying to convince your small nonprofit to use direct mail? No. In fact, ProActive Content loves email fundraising and we write about it frequently and do more of that than anything else for our nonprofit clients. But direct mail can do things that email and social cannot do as well.

And I know from experience that too many small nonprofits think direct mail is too expensive for them, so they miss out on what you can achieve through direct mail.

Let’s look at some direct mail data and statistics, and reasons to consider using it:

Fundraising Direct Mail Data for Nonprofits

17 days

The average amount of time before a household throws out a piece of mail.

That means they keep it somewhere. It’s on the table. Next to the couch. By their bed. Sitting in a pile perhaps. In a ‘to-do’ pile on the counter. But it’s there. It’s under consideration. Direct mail has more staying power than email or social media, by FAR. Paraphrasing The Big Lebowski, direct mail abides.

454 mailings per year

This is the average amount of mail Americans receive each year.

Consider that in comparison to email, where many people get over 100 each day. The sheer volume of email makes it literally impossible to read it all. And social media is so ubiquitous it can’t even be counted. Direct mail has far less competition, and people look forward to receiving it. They like going to their mailboxes and finding things there.

38% say direct mail is best for telling stories

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Research reported by The Nonprofit Times reveals that only 23% of people believe email is better at telling stories.

Their research breaks this and many other metrics down by age groups. But the main point is clear: If you want your stories to connect with your readers, direct mail gets it done the best.

5.3% response rate for house lists in 2016

For prospect lists (meaning mailing to people you have not mailed to before), the rate was 2.9%. This is another site with reams of data about direct mail, with comparisons to email.

Fundraising email response rates, in comparison, dropped to 0.06% in 2017. Advocacy email response rates fell to 2.2%.

Consider then, that even mailing to total strangers with direct mail resulted in a higher response than advocacy emails to your existing email subscribers who already know you. Direct mail has always had higher response rates than email.

What does this mean for small nonprofits? Use direct mail with your in-house list, not for prospecting.

Another site, not researching nonprofits, found a 4.4% response rate for direct mail and 0.12% for email. The same site also reported the next data point:

$7 Average ROI

Here, email wins because it costs so little to send. Email earns $28.50 in average ROI.

The important thing to note here is, both produce a positive return on investment, on average.

The Most Important Data Points to One Conclusion

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

The most important conclusion of all, which almost all of these sources and any others you look up will say is, using multiple forms of media in combination will be more effective than relying on just one.

So, email works great. And direct mail works great. But email and direct mail used together, works better than either of them do separately. Why is that?

Because people are busy and distracted. By reaching them from multiple channels, you increase your chances of reaching them at all. And, if they see your message more than once, it reinforces the previous one and lights up a different part of the brain. Our brains react differently to different forms of media.

By using more than one type of media, we make a more convincing and persuasive case to the potential donor.

So – hopefully, that’s enough to convince you of the value of using direct mail, and that if you can make the costs work out even for a small nonprofit, you should strongly consider it.

Cost Benefits of Small Nonprofits Using Direct Mail

The next thing to realize is that the cost of direct mail is proportional to the size of the mailing list. If you only have 200 addresses, you can send out 200 letters – and include a stamped reply envelope – for under $300.

That’s pretty cheap, considering the potential benefits.

What if you don’t make that much back? That’s another reason to pair the direct mail campaign with an email and social media one. See why your nonprofit is not too small to write consistent emails.

Also, if you have more than 437 people on your mailing list, you can save even more money on the reply envelopes if you use business reply envelopes, which you can sign up for with the Post Office. Just to be clear – this is not a no-brainer, because handwritten addresses tend to outperform business reply. But it does save money and time. Why 437? See the 9 steps to setting up a business reply account, and you’ll see where the 437 comes from.

4 Strategies to Increase Direct Mail Success for Small Nonprofits

1. Keep Trying New Things

The most important thing is to not fall into a rut. Don’t do something just because “we did it last year.” Try new things. If you always send a postcard, try an oversize postcard this time. If you always send a blank #10 envelope, try a different size, or try putting some copy on the outside of the envelope.

2. Pair Email with Direct Mail

This bears repeating because it’s so important. If you want to send out a campaign and can afford one direct mail letter, then create a 3-5 email series that communicates the same message.

Plan for the direct mail letter to show up during that series, and refer to the emails in the letter (and the letter in the emails). Make people realize how much you are trying to communicate with them. If you have time for social media, get a photo of the envelope or some other visual representing the letter, and ask people if they want to see a copy. For anyone who responds, get them on your mailing list and mail it to them.

3. Pair Direct Mail with Phone Calls

Image by Patrice Audet from Pixabay

Again, being small and having a small list, you can make this happen. Especially if you can get a couple of volunteers or board members to help. Carve out time the week after the direct mail piece goes out, and call every single person on your list. If you can call just 5 per hour, one person can do about 40 in a day. That’s doable.

Leave room for conversations to blossom, because strengthening your connection with each person is more important than just a single donation.

But also, phone combined with direct mail combined with email will increase response even more.

4. Use Fundraising Phone Scripts, But Don’t Be Too Strict

You want a general outline of a fundraising phone script, and you want clear language around key moments in the conversation, such as when you ask for money, how you greet them, and some key questions. But if the conversation goes in a different direction, let it go there. Just bring it back to the script when the timing is right.

Here are some basic elements you want to hit in your phone calls to people who received your direct mail fundraising letter:

• “How did you get involved with us/How did you hear about us?”

This helps you understand where your supporters are coming from. What’s working, and who is driving your ‘leads.’

• “Have you told anyone else about us?”

Set the expectation and the hope that you want them to tell others about your organization. Plant the seed. Doesn’t matter if the answer is no. But you can expand on this question a lot depending on your nonprofit’s mission.

• “What part of our mission do you care about the most?”

Find out what matters to them. Donors give for reasons that matter to them, not to you. This is your opportunity to learn what matters to them. Don’t waste it!

• “I was calling to find out if you got the letter we mailed last week?”

Now, after having hopefully a good conversation, you want to eventually get to the point of your call. You ask this because, if they didn’t see it, you can use this call to remind them of the core messaging of the campaign. Again – that part should be scripted out.

The other reason you ask this is because if they did see the letter, you can ask them what they thought about it and if they are considering donating. Don’t talk about how small you are and how badly you need their support. That’s not why they want to give. Don’t guilt-trip them. You honestly, sincerely want to know if they are considering giving, and if not, why not. And if so, how much.

• “Are you interested in sending us a donation or becoming a monthly supporter?”

Make sure to give them both options. They might not have considered monthly support. But what would you rather have – a one-time $100 donation, or a $10 per month donation?

Take the $10! Every time! Monthly donations are always preferable to one-time gifts. And most monthly donors will occasionally still give one-time gifts, as long as you keep asking.

And if you can get them to send their monthly donation directly from their bank account rather than a credit card you will save on the processing fees. So give them that option too.

Need Help Writing Your Direct Mail Campaign?

ProActive Content works with small and mid-size nonprofits, with preference for human services and international organizations. While we love animals and art museums, you can probably find someone with more passion for those causes somewhere else.

Important: No matter how small you are, we can work out a way to create direct mail (or email) fundraising campaigns for you.

Get a free 60-minute fundraising consultation and ask about direct mail or email fundraising.

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