Are you using direct mail for your end of year fundraising?
According to Blackbaud, more than one-third of overall charitable giving takes place from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, – which is why non-profit marketers need to concentrate on their direct mail fundraising for end of year. Network for Good found that 11 percent of all online giving happens the last three days of the year. This is not the time for fund raisers to use up their remaining vacation days. The time is now – between today and Dec. 31 – to excel as fundraisers.
Quick Reality Check: make sure your online giving process as simple and donor-focused as possible—because offline efforts, like direct mail or space advertising, drive online giving. Make sure your online donation portal is working, up-to-date and streamlined. Can anyone go online anytime and quickly make a donation? Does your donation page briefly convey what the donor can make possible with a gift? Does your gift acknowledgement auto-response convey genuine gratitude and focus on the donor, or is it a perfunctory message written in accountant-speak?
Donor Prospects
Look carefully at how are you driving prospective donors to your site? Are you targeting the right donor prospects?
Direct mail for end of year fund raising is still a top generator of charity dollars because it gives an agency entree into the right homes at the right time, insuring delivery of the message in a way no other medium can do.
One final caveat, when non-profits are planning their direct mail for their end of year fund raising , they should also plan to soften up their audience with digital. By that I mean email, social media marketing and digital ads. Then – then chase the mailings with another round of email and social media. We know that repetition counts. Multiple contacts via multiple marketing channels will increase response rate.
