Are You Too Small for Direct Mail Donor Acquisition?

By Alan Sharpe, CFRE
Some non-profit organizations should not use direct mail as a way to attract new donors. Is your organization one of them? Take this simple test and find out.

Test #1: Are you well known to many people?
The average response rate for a direct mail donor acquisition mailing is 1%. Which means you must mail 100 letters to acquire 1 donor. And mail 10,000 letters to acquire 100 donors. And mail 100,000 letters to acquire 1,000 donors. This is the unavoidable math of direct mail fundraising.

So direct mail is not the best donor acquisition tool for you if you are located in a small town that has a small pool of potential donors, or if your organization is unknown. To succeed at direct mail donor acquisition, your organization needs to have broad name recognition, or, if you are new, have a founder with broad name recognition.

Test #2: Do you meet a pressing need?
To attract new donors with fundraising letters, your organization needs to have a compelling case for support. Many non-profit organizations serve a constituency that is either too small or too obscure to appeal to many donors.

The Moose Jaw Amateur Radio Club, for example, is a fine organization, I’m sure. But they do not meet a pressing need. Heart disease is a pressing need. Global warming is a pressing need. And drunk driving. And diabetes. To succeed at direct mail donor acquisition, your organization must meet a basic, urgent, human need.

Test #3: Will you pass a search on Google?
If you have no track record, no annual report, no audited statements and no way of proving that you are financially responsible, ethical and trustworthy, now is not the right time to try acquiring donors through direct mail. To succeed at direct mail donor acquisition, your organization needs public proof that you are credible, preferably going back many years.

Test #4: Are potential donors easy to find cost-effectively?
On occasion I have helped a small, evangelical adoption agency raise funds. They do terrific work finding loving homes for babies that would otherwise be aborted. My wife and I adopted two boys through this agency. As you can imagine, the majority of their donors have been touched by adoption in one way or another. Most Canadians have not. Which is why this organization does not use direct mail as a way to acquire new donors. They don’t have a pool of potential donors that’s easy to find.

So they rely instead on word of mouth, special events and relationship-building. To succeed at direct mail donor acquisition, your organization needs what Lautman & Company calls “a natural constituency.”

If you need help writing and designing direct mail donor acquisition packages, give us a call, at 877 742- 7732.

Or read these helpful handbooks:

Handbook Number 7 18 Places to Find New Donors Using Fundraising Letters. The professional fundraiser’s guide to creative and cost-effective donor acquisition.

Handbook Number 11 Attract New Donors and Members with a Magnetic Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Package. Discover over 75 tips, insider secrets and proven tactics by analyzing a superb donor acquisition package from a national charity.

Handbook Number 19 Mailing Lists: Where and How to Discover the Best Ones for Your Next Direct Mail Appeal. Acquire new donors and members by mailing to people most likely to respond to your appeals.