Marketing: Print

Those who are your loyal givers.  Some non-profits target seniors... some target the wealthy... and some target high-income earners.  Well, 35% of CRTs are created by donors  55 years old or younger; 15% of all planned gifts are made by donors 45 and younger; and a typical planned giving prospect is one who has earned between $50,000 and $150,000 per year his or her entire life (adjusted for inflation).

The fact is, when data-mining for your best prospects, focus on institutional loyalty, demonstrated by consistent annual giving.  It is not as easy as it may seem, but for some help, go to PG Finder. (This is different from all the other analytics or wealth-mining services on the market.)

If you insist on doing it yourself, here is a FREE tip: Go to your annual giving database and carefully select donors who have given consecutively for 10 years or more.  Since there are many other permutations to consider, you won't get our results of 91% accuracy, but you will at least get a list to start working from.

Because fewer and fewer are even getting read. 

Marketing noise: every day the average prospect is inundated with over 2500 marketing messages. In a large city, it's over 3700.  A battle is being fought for the eyes and ears of the world, and in most cases your enemy is an overstuffed mailbox.  Not only is your mail competing with the Legacy Newsletter of the hospital next door, but your prospects' mailboxes are full of so much junk that your newsletter is often simply lost in the pile.  And admit it: many issues you mail out are not exactly compelling reads.  Come on. Do you really believe your prospects are dying to get home at night to read your "exciting" newsletter describing how to part with their wealth after death?

They will actually pay more attention to an advertising medium that delivers a quick, simple, focused message.  One that is cleverly designed, cleverly delivered, and most especially one that is benefits-based. These can include postards and solicitation letters. (Important: if you send out solicitation letters, do not enclose any other pieces in the envelope. They detract from the message.)

Remember: Americans read their mail standing over a wastebasket.

Depending on the type of organization sending them, planned giving newsletters in general have less than a 5% readership (not response) rate. If you are a boutique non-profit your readership rate may be higher, but do your homework.  No matter what kind of non-profit you represent, however, expect to encounter the trend of more and more of your newsletters being trashed before they are even opened.

Correct and that is our point.

You should never focus on the details or features of planned gifts in any marketing medium! Sell the sizzle (a gift's benefits), not the steak. 

The vendor's reasoning goes back to the 60's — the Old Days of planned giving.

We hear it all too frequently; "I don't want to mail my prospects too often because I may annoy them."  If you are that sensitive, perhaps you should not ask them for donations at all.  Take a fundraising powerhouse like St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital for example; do you think they worry about how often they mail?  And, like other successful charities, they do mail often. 

Here is an amusing story:

"I sometimes eat breakfast at a little, neighborhood mom-and-pop coffee shop near my home.  There on the counter next to the cash register sit three different receptacles for charitable donations of coins ¾ one for Kiwanis, one for some organization for the blind, one for disabled veterans.  One morning, as I dropped my change into one of the receptacles, it registered with me that I always plunked my change into the same one.  Why?  I stood there for a few minutes pondering my own behavior.

Then it hit me.  The reason I always put my change into the disabled veterans jar was

• NOT because I had preference for that charity over the others
• NOT because of any reasoned decision to support it instead of the others
• NOT because of the graphic design or appearance of the containers
• NOT because of any sales copy on the containers
• NOT because of their arrangement on the counter
• NOT for any logical or admirable reason

The reason, and only reason, I put all my change into only one of these charity jars, each and every time, is because the hole in the top of my favored jar is bigger than the holes in the lids on the other two jars."

Lesson learned?  Ask steadily, ask obviously, and ask for more.

In this discussion we assume that the mailing is not going out late and does not have a deadline for response.  In those cases use First Class or do not mail at all.

Most times, "Third Class Mail" (the US Postal service often changes the name of this service; but it's the generally recognized "bulk mail") works just as well as first class mail, and using the non-profit, pre-canceled postage results in substantial cost savings.

Non-profits who try to gauge mail to arrive and be read a certain day of the week are kidding themselves. Not only does it depend on the different post-offices your mailing is routed through, but many people don't read mail daily because they are either not at home or have other priorities. With proper planning you can control the arrival of Third Class Mail within 10 days in the US (except during the Christmas season).

One of the reasons non-profits new to direct marketing shy away from Third Class is that they feel their mailers will be perceived as junk mail. This is a misconception because junk mail is only junk if it has no appeal to the reader (like most of the spam out there).  A well written and well produced mailing that tells your organization's story will appeal to many of your prospects.

If you are sending out a personalized letter, we generally recommend first class mail (with a real stamp, and preferably a handwritten or typed address.  You may also want to consider writing "first class mail" on the envelope.  Of course, your size of mailing and budget may impose limitations, but many of your planned giving mailings will be going to a small, targeted group. 

Depends upon your budget and staff resources. 

If you develop one, do not invest too much time and money in it, and use the finished product more as a leave behind than a direct-mail piece.  Avoid overly expensive 4- to 6- color pieces (unless budget is not an issue).  Many non-profits are finding that it creates a better impression on prospects for the fundraiser to print out appropriate pages from the planned giving website, enclose them in a folder along with a personalized gift illustration request, and deliver this package in person (if possible), rather than to mail a mega-buck glossy brochure.

Focus on the relevance and quality of your message in your brochure, and leave the high production values to the banks and investment houses.

Our advice?  Do not include any numeric scenario.  A $10K gift example will implant (even subconsciously) in your prospects' minds that that's the amount they should donate.  Describe your mission and vision, show how a gift annuity can help a donor support that vision, and then follow up with a personalized gift example for each respondent.