The Annual Giving Exchange

Saturday Night Live recently did a skit making fun of direct mail marketing.  It’s funny, and like all SNL skits, should be taken in good humor. It’s important to be able to laugh.  It’s even more important to be able to laugh at yourself.

All humor aside, though, the skit also makes an important point that those of us in annual giving should consider.  We know that direct mail is effective.  If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t do it.  But don’t lose sight of the fact that some people perceive direct mail to be wasteful, intrusive, and annoying.

Click here to watch the skit.  Enjoy it.  But also take a moment to think about how your direct mail campaign might be perceived by your donors.

There are many alternatives to sending direct mail – phonathons, e-mail, social networking, or even sending no mail at all.  But rather than abandon a successful program because of how a few people perceive it, consider what you could do to adjust the broader perception of your mail campaigns.

Are you sending direct mail too often, or not often enough?  Does your choice of paper stock send the message that you’re an A+ operation or environmentally unfriendly?  Are there ways that you could send mail only to people who have been responsive to it in the past?  Is direct mail best used as a way of renewing past donors?  Likewise, are alternative media channels best used as a means of acquiring new donors?

Effective fundraising is about building relationships with your donors.   Direct mail is no exception.  In fact, it can undermine those relationships if you’re not careful.