DESIGNING AN EFFECTIVE DONOR APPEAL Part 1
One of the greatest challenges facing a non-profit, charitable organization is that of raising operational funds through the solicitation of individual donations. Oftentimes, the appeal for donations comes in the form of appeal letters mailed to the home or office of existing or potential donors. The problem arises in how to elicit a positive response from the targeted donor including opening the letter, reading the content and taking an action such as returning a donation. This raises the questions: How do you get a potential donor to open and read your appeal letter? What techniques can promote a positive response?
How to Design an Effective Donor Appeal
There it is in your mailbox—that letter from your alma mater, community theater group, local animal shelter or perhaps from one of the thousands of charities looking for your very generous donation. Direct mail pieces like these are a staple of modern living and, according to the Winterberry Group, a $45.7 billion market in 2015 (Fletcher). So the question is, do you open it…or toss it?
While anyone can write a fundraising appeal letter, a nonprofit professional can increase the effectiveness and return on investment of the appeal by using the proven design elements described in this paper.
Statement of the Problem
One of the greatest challenges facing a non-profit, charitable organization is that of raising operational funds through the solicitation of individual donations. Oftentimes, the appeal for donations comes in the form of appeal letters mailed to the home or office of existing or potential donors. The problem arises in how to elicit a positive response from the targeted donor including opening the letter, reading the content and taking an action such as returning a donation. Which raises the questions: How do you get a potential donor to open and read your appeal letter? What techniques can promote a positive response? Ultimately, what components make for a letter that successfully raises funds for the organization?
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to encourage fundraising development directors and other non-profit leadership to adopt the procedures discussed in this paper into their fundraising appeal process. After reading these pages they will realize that implementing the design and content choices in the envelope, letter and collateral material will improve their return on investment with future donor appeals. They will also realize that not following these guidelines would be to their organization’s detriment.
Research Question
For the purpose of this study, the following questions were addressed:
Methodology
Secondary research provided the foundation for this paper. As part the methodology for this paper, three forms of primary research were conducted to answer specific issues or questions about the thesis, solve the stated problems, prove the hypothesis and provide additional evidence for the research. It involved three interviews with individuals, a Likert scale survey and observations. The interviews, survey and observations mostly supported the secondary research conducted for this paper with only minor exceptions. The textural research included fundraising appeal texts, academic journals, blogs and articles by professionals in the field that concentrate directly on the subject matter.
As part of this study, investigation included one research hypothesis that is proven in this paper. The study’s hypothesis was that if the organization uses research and statistics to determine content and design of an appeal letter, even if delivered to the exact same target audience, the result will be an increase in response rates.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework is based on examining the three key elements of an appeal letter: the outer envelope, the letter and the remittance portion. It was important to examine each of these elements to understand more fully how they impact the effectiveness of a direct mail donor appeal letter. This theoretical framework provided a background and results to explain the best design principles to employ in the design of a direct mail donor appeal letter to garner the best return on investment.
Each element was then investigated through secondary research, observation, survey and interview. The outcomes were then evaluated to determine the course of action to follow to design the most effective appeal letter
