[Editor's note: This is part 3 of a 3 part series Designing an Effective Donor Appeal.]
Designing an Effective Donor Appeal Part 3 - Designing the Letter and Remittance Portion of Appeal
Design elements of the donor appeal letter can increase the probability of the individual reading and responding positively to the request. Long appeal letters convey a greater importance. Never worry about boring your reader with information about your organization. Even the most active donors remember very little about the organization they support (Warwick, page 109). There are no concrete rules about the length of donor appeal letters. Joe Garecht from The Fundraising Authority suggest that you, “take the space you need to write a great letter and make a great ask” (Garecht, 2015). From 2004 to 2007, Pareto Fundraising conducted test on two, four and six page letters throughout the calendar year to groups of 5,000 at a time. The results: the longer the letter, the more the donation (Pareto, 2010) Four to six page letters seem to be the most productive. But, you must keep in mind the cost of postage is based partially on weight and too many pages may affect the bottom line.
Typography is one of the most important elements of design. Make the letter easy to read is a key factor to its success. Research shows that design and typography choices can reduce readership and comprehension of your letter by up to 90% (Wheildon & Heard 2005). To increase legibility, the font should be 14 point in size. In direct-response tests, the Courier font pulled more response than other fonts in fundraising appeals (Ahern, 2016).
Senior Strategist at Harvey McKinnon Associates, the full-service fundraising agency specializing in direct mail and monthly giving for the nonprofit sector strongly urges that you should avoid photos in donor appeal letters, says, “Photos tend to distract your readers. Photos take your reader’s eye away from the letter and slow the reader down” (Sharpe, 2014) plus he feels it gives the impression that they are being mass-mailed to thousands. Gail Perry, MBA, CFRE, and an international fundraising consultant urges to save the photos for online appeals. Facebook post garner 39% more interaction and Twitter photos increase engagement by 35% (Perry, 2016).
The use of pulled quotes and headlines should be used to emphasize key messages. Donor appeal letters are stories about the organization and Mario Garcia asserts in the 1993 book Contemporary Newspaper Design, "Most well-written stories will include direct quotes” (Gibson, 2001). Direct quotes increase the likelihood of someone reading those messages even if they just skim the letter and studies reveal that visual elements are enticing to readers (Ahern, 2016). When using direct quotes treat them as a design element. Ilene Strizver, author of Type Rules, says “Always give pull quotes the same attention to detail you would any prominent typographic element” (Strizver, 2016).
Without a reply device, little money would be collected from a donor appeal letter. The remittance portion of an appeal is vital to its success (Warwick & Overman, 2013). Distinct elements of the remittance portion of the donor appeal will increase the probability of the individual making a donation. Space is limited on the remittance envelope so design and layout of are important. The envelope should be easy to fill out with adequate space for the required information. Gary Henricksen, president and owner of Boston marketing company Five Maples suggest using some spot color to attract the eye to the remittance card (Henricksen, 2015).
In the Likert survey conducted for this paper (Appendix C) 73% of the respondents “Strongly Agreed” or “Agreed” that free postage would affect their desire to complete a remittance form and make a donation. Despite the strong impression it had on survey respondents, there are several disadvantages of using postage-paid envelopes or pre-addressed envelopes with postage stamps for a remittance form. First the cost can be staggering. Secondly, using USPS postage paid envelopes can cause long delays in response due to the second-class nature of that type of mail. Thirdly and probably more concerning is that some fundraising experts believe that supplying the postage gives the appearance of wastefulness and extravagance with the donations you may be receiving (Warwick & Overman, 2013).
The design element most proven to enhance donations in the remittance portion of the appeal is the gift array. Providing a series of suggested donations on a response card can yield greater amounts (Warwick & Overman 2013). Appeal letters going to previous donors should have suggested amounts that parallel pervious gifts with an “ask” for an increased donation (Swank, 2015). Over last few decades, social media and other online fundraising tactics have surfaced, and many have been effective. But despite the banter purporting that the US mail system is a relic, direct mail fundraising and annual appeals still raise millions of dollars each year. Written appeal letters still bring in the majority of donations for charities.
Conclusion and Future Study
In conclusion, this paper has been demonstrated that using relatively simple elements of design, a fundraiser can increase the successfulness of a direct mail appeal letter. The first and secondary research conducted produced complementary results. The design of the outer envelope, letter and remittance has a direct effect of the return on investment. Following the design logic in this paper will increase the effectiveness of a direct mail donor appeal.
The future study will focus on an actual appeal mailing sent to an 8,000-address list of existing donors to a local performing arts organization. Several elements discussed in this paper will be tested in control groups to measure the difference in approach and to compare to existing primary and secondary research.
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