I am on the Board of Directors of a Houston nonprofit art organization and we recently hosted our big fundraiser of the year. Yes, this may seem ridiculous, but, even I as a Board member didn’t immediately send back in my response card and check. HOWEVER (big however), weeks later as soon as I received an email reminder, I clicked through and sealed the deal. When I think of a promotion in terms of how it fits into an integrated marketing campaign, I automatically think of all the different touch points and how they relate to the funnel. But the example of the fundraiser invitation has me thinking that perhaps I shouldn’t ever think of a direct mail campaign as a “campaign” in and of itself. Maybe it needs to be thought of as a total mail campaign, one that always involves not only direct mail campaign strategy but also a complementary email component.
Marrying Online and Offline Efforts Can Improve Your Fundraising
A recent article I read in the Chronicle of Philanthropy got me thinking of the relationship of email and direct mail campaign strategy outside of events and more in the vein of raising money through donations. With such an online driven society, its hard to think that people are still sending solicitations snail mail, but they are….and it works. Particularly for nonprofits seeking donations. Research indicates that nonprofits bring in exponentially more money through direct mail efforts than they do through online efforts despite big increases in online donations. But with studies pinpointing the importance of mobile and online giving (up 14% and for small to medium sized nonprofits even more), it’s important that you think in terms of leveraging those vehicles for your next fundraising campaign.
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