Direct Mail Still Powers Nonprofit Fundraising

Interest in direct mailing lists and services from AccuList USA's nonprofit clients remains strong despite the growing share of donor dollars collected via online giving. Some of the reasons that fundraising pros stay committed to mail power are cited in a recent article for The NonProfit Times by Mark Hrywna. Despite the growing share of donations attributed to online giving, Steve MacLaughlin, vice president of data and analytics at fundraising tech firm Blackbaud, stresses that online giving is still less than 10% of all charitable giving. Fundraisers need to avoid confusing the channel of engagement with the channel of transaction, he advises. Direct mail response certainly is no longer limited to mailed donations as many direct mail recipients go online to give; similarly, a mobile-device outreach or e-mail appeal can generate offline gifts. Even in an increasingly digital world, a good multi-channel mix will include direct mail. Hrywna cites Make-a-Wish Foundation as an example of that continued direct mail investment. When Chief Financial Officer Paul Mehlhorn started with Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2009, he recalls that he was told direct mail was a dinosaur that would be gone in five or six years. Yet last year the national office exceeded 2009 direct mail revenue by several million dollars, going from $13.9 million to $15.3 million. "It looks to me like a program that can stay very strong for the next 10 to 15 years," Mehlhorn asserts to Hrywna. In fact, Mehlhorn says he may expand on his direct mail investment: "As you get past the low-hanging fruit, [online] becomes almost as costly as direct mail. Unless you enlarge your donor pool, you’re going to be spending about the same." Plus, there are some areas where direct mail retains an edge, such as planned giving. Make-A-Wish Foundation has seen revenue from planned gifts just about triple during the past four years, growing from about $2 million to $6 million, and Mehlhorn credits part of that success to actively promoting planned giving in direct mail as well as online campaigns. “A lot of the folks now making end-of-life plans are still in that generation that likes getting mail,” he points out. See the full blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/direct-mail-still-powers-fundraising-especially-planned-giving/

Amid Digital Clutter, 'Simple' Mail Wins Notice

With multiple digital channels now used to communicate with customers--e-mail, online, mobile and social--businesses risk creating so much marketing clutter that they bury message and response. We've found that targeted direct mail is one way to cut through that marketing noise--and sometimes the simplest mail message speaks the loudest. Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!, provides a good example in a recent Target Marketing magazine article. Independence Blue Cross, a healthcare insurer, wanted to contact members ahead of a deadline for renewal of 2016 health plan coverage. Since e-mails may be ignored in busy inboxes, the insurer decided to gather text opt-ins for renewal communications with members via a single, easy response channel--their ever-present mobile phones. And then Independent turned to a direct mail postcard as an outreach device that was sure to be delivered and "opened." The company mailed a two-sided 6-inch-by-11-inch postcard prompting mobile phone sign-ups for its text-messaging service. The front of the postcard simply announced "2016 health care coverage" and "Right from your phone," and drove home the point visually with a photo of a cell phone with a big "easy" text message bubble displayed. The reverse side of the postcard laid out the few steps, via a single call, to opt-in to insurer text alerts. For a look at the actual piece, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/ibx-keeps-mail-simple/