Small shops can rock direct mail fundraising! Case in point, meet Kathleen Kennedy, Associate Director of Tucson-based Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection. Kathleen is a Basics & More alum who is going above and beyond. Soon after her recent direct mail campaign hit my mailbox, I reached out to Kathleen and asked if I could share it with you and she happily obliged. Though the letter speaks for itself, I asked Kathleen a few questions about the piece so that I could gain some additional background and context.
Q. How much segmentation did you do with this piece? I noted that, as a lapsed donor, the letter spoke directly to me.
A.We sent out five segmented letters to the following donors: Individual Donors (our term for donors that give $250 or less per year), Major Donors (greater than $250 per year), Lapsed Donors, Potential New Donors (supporters who have given us their contact information at events or in other ways over the past year but have never donated), and Camera Volunteers (we have an enthusiastic group of volunteers that monitor our wildlife cameras in the field). As a side note, we will add a sixth segment for our year-end campaign, sending a tailored letter to our Recurring Donors.
Q. Did this piece go to your entire donor base – or a select few?
A. It went to our entire donor base.
Q. Did you create this entire DM campaign internally?
A. Yes, we wrote and designed the campaign internally. We have a team of volunteers that help us put the mailing together and hand-address all the envelopes.
Q. I liked your monthly giving callout. How is your monthly giving program going? Have you ever done a mailing targeted specifically to growing monthly giving (no other ask)?
A. Thanks! Our monthly giving program is definitely growing. We gained six new monthly donors in the first quarter of this year which was a faster pace than in the past. We have boosted our communications across all channels this year and are also promoting monthly giving more aggressively. We currently have 45 recurring donors (some are quarterly and some are monthly) which is a 50% increase from a couple years ago. We have never done a mailing targeted specifically to growing monthly giving but it’s a great idea that we will definitely consider.
Q. Are you incorporating other strategies in this campaign (phone calls, website changes, emails, etc.)?
A. We changed the following parts of our website to support the campaign: the text on our lightbox, adding text to the very top of our homepage, putting up a slide on the homepage, and changing some of the language and the image on our donation page to be consistent with our campaign theme. We are sending out a series of follow-up emails and trying to tie the campaign theme (Connecting Communities and Open Spaces) to some specific issues and actions we are working on right now in the emails. We are also making personal phone calls to all donors to thank them.
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I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
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