FundRaiser Blog
Mothers' donor database know-how: how MADD personalizes appeal letters with local chapter information
In honor of Mother's day, we're running a case study , written in 2010 that shares how FundRaiser is used to create a personal feeling for appeal letters sent out from one central location on behalf of several Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) chapters in Florida.
Fundraising appeals for many MADD Florida chapters are produced and mailed from one central office, but donors won’t be able to tell. With personalization, these letters will look and sound local, addressing the local activities of the closest chapter.
“Donors want to know how the money is being used locally. Even though I am sending it out from Tampa for the MADD Community Action Site in Naples, everything is localized for Naples: the return address and information regarding the programs and services provided in that area,” says Alan Johnson, Development Staff Officer for MADD Florida and a FundRaiser Select user. He creates the letters for other Florida MADD chapters that don’t have paid staff.
One of the main reasons for using FundRaiser is to make this kind of personalization easier. “I’ll probably have 23 different changes so that I get the appropriate letter, with localized program and service information to the appropriate jurisdiction,” says Johnson. The mail merge features and the built-in word processor in FundRaiser are designed to work with these kinds of changes.
Johnson has extensive experience in using letters for fundraising and feels comfortable with the process. He offered some comments on what has worked for him. “Creating a sense of urgency, personalizing the letter, and localizing the message are the most important things to do in a mailing campaign.”
Repeat Mailings
Repeating mailings is another thing that has worked for Johnson. “If you send out a letter and do a follow up in another month you will raise as much or more on the second letter, as you did on the first mailing. The more mail drops the more money you will raise.” Many of the core features in FundRaiser software are specifically aimed at coordinating repeat mail campaigns, including options to exclude donors who specifically request only a single mailing a year.
Johnson learned the value of repeat mailings at an earlier job, where they had a dramatic impact on donations. “I started with Red Cross. The chapter I worked with was bringing in $6,000 in a March campaign. Several years later, the chapter Mailing Campaign was netting over $100,000 annually through mail drops nine times a year.”
“If you send out a larger number of mailings, and establish a creditable case for giving, donors may contribute two, three, or four times a year,” he says.
He also encourages organizations with local chapters to send letters locally even if the national organization sends national appeals. “Some local chapters feel that if the national organization does a mail drop, then they shouldn’t do one. Others get angry if the national organization does a mail drop in their area. I say ‘go for it, do your own.’ A donor may give to both the national and to the local organization based on the case that is made. People may give to the same organization a number of times for a variety of different reasons, for both local and national issues. Let the prospect and donor make their own mind up regarding who they will contribute to — don’t try to “second” guess them and miss an opportunity to raise funds.”
Keep Testing Simple and Reap the Rewards
Johnson says he’s learned a lot by testing, and it doesn’t have to be fancy. In this way he’s found which kind of pictures work best, what to put in the letterhead, and other details.
“You don’t have to be really scientific. Keep it simple. For instance, if you want to check the response on a certain enclosure, run a colored marker along the top edge of the reply envelope for those test mailings and determine your return rate. Use common sense - don’t complicate your mailing - and go for it; you will reap a lot of rewards,” says Johnson.
Gaining Major Donations
“Once you start to gather information in your database, follow up with your donors, and make some cultivation calls. You can begin to get some major gifts. It all begins with that initial personal contact, often through an appeal letter,” says Johnson.
Interested in seeing how FundRaiser can help you personal your appeal letters?
