Between Thanksgiving and January 31, I chucked all incoming fundraising mail into a box, which I’m now going through, looking for learnings.
This is wholly unscientific analysis of course. Quite a few I know are controls because I’ve seen them often before. My box included a few tests to name variants. Many organizations don’t have adequate quantities to test, so some packages that are remailed repeatedly are just performing well in the eyes of the senders, untested.
130 packages received, including renewals, second renewals, and a fair number of appeals and acquisition kits. In many cases the outer envelope doesn’t tell me whether they are renewals, appeals or acquisition. So for now I’m going to look at all as a group.
Twenty three include membership cards.
None of the classic hard card I used to work on so frequently in the early 1990s — kraft carrier with some legalese… card is hard enough to have heft, to be felt, and doesn’t show through a window… essentially looking like a bank mailing you a credit card. These worked like crazy in their day, but hard (credit card weight or more) cards are expensive, particularly since they were all personalized.
So now, at best, they’re soft, even sometimes just perfed paper. All showed through a window on the carrier. A nice touch: a Defenders of Wildlife sent a second-notice “photocopy” of the first notice, and the membership card itself looked like a “photocopy.”
20 renewals included a premium, almost all personalized address labels, a couple of personalized writing tablets. One cross on a chain. One 6×9″ calendar arrived in late December.(I received several 8 1/2″ x 11″ calendars just before Thanksgiving, the usual timing.)
Only a few offered a premium back end — to be sent once renewal was received.
Nonrenewal premiums included address labels plus one pen (to sign the enclosed petition) and a Lakota key ring. (Last fall I received a “Dream Catcher” from one of the Native American organizations. Gawd I hope that wasn’t made in China.)
To me odd, 25 were mailed in closed face envelopes, none of which looked the least bit personal. I.e., they had teasers, even elaborate color graphics, on the outer.
I encourage clients mailing in quantities under a million to use closed-face carriers only when trying to simulate very personal correspondence.
A good general guideline: The more something simulates the conventions of personal correspondence, the higher the response and greater the gift. A generality.
Closed face is costly because of match mail. (Except in large quantities when done inline.) So I don’t want to waste my investment in “personal” by adding teasers etc that scream “I am solicitation mail!”
This is my baseline position, knowing that some organizations send closed-face kits with teasers with great success, most particularly when mailing high-donor-circle names. Why else?…
Generally I’ll mention names only of groups whose packages I praise. That said…
One national “disease cure” group mailed me two #13 closed-face carriers with commercial graphics. Not showing a premium. Nothing that would induce me to open. I can’t explain.
Several were groups small enough that they might be hand assembling the packages. One I know is for sure. And one small group personalized only the envelope, not the reply, so no match mail expense.
NARAL/ProChoice America has a control I’ve seen a number of times: a carrier window with a personalized label pasted over the window. Very official looking. Jumps out of the mailbox clutter. Cool.
A couple of animal welfare groups show animals with big sad eyes. Ok, but why not use a window carrier?
One national group sent a closed-face with a faux typewritten teaser: Loyal friend of XXthis groupXX. What would make this work is a corner card advising me that the people they help will know they have “a true friend in Richmond”. (I live in Richmond, Virginia.) That local touch could make this work. But I’d try the same approach showing the address through a standard window and that local message through a second window. I bet that would work as well and cost less.
Only one organization made best use of match mail, sending me something that looked nice and personal: Covenant House. If you don’t know this organization, go online and make a gift. They do great work … and great fundraising. This was a roughly 4 x 6″ envelope, so it could be a greeting card, with a faux personalized address label and live stamp. A small-format two-page letter. A note paper for me to write on and send with my gift. And, in a little brochure-weight fold, that small cross on a chain.
It would have been great if I could have felt that cross before opening the envelope. It was probably so hidden due to relatively new USPS regulations, driven by automation, which don’t allow many old premiums because the envelopes would be shred in sorting machines. The classic coin showing through a window was squelched by this rule. So, I speculate, was the visibility of this cross. A wonderful package in any case.