I’m an avid scanner of mail samples. I’m particularly intrigued by how organizations approach the monthly gift option on their reply forms. If you’re at all interested in growing your number of monthly donors, planting the monthly giving seeds on your appeals has become a best practice. Granted, you’re not going to get oodles and oodles of new monthly donors, but it’s a start at no extra cost. Recently I came across this example. I’ve blanked...

By now, you probably know I love to organize. I have hundreds of direct mail and monthly giving examples scanned in. And over Christmas, I scanned in a huge box of family pictures. It’s all part of the downsizing and simplifying process my husband and I are going through. I must say, it’s tremendously liberating! As part of all this scanning and organizing, I gathered a huge stack of address labels, note cards and calendars. I will not have to...

A few weeks ago, I gave kudos to the post office, printers, mail houses, etc. But what I failed to do was give kudos to fundraisers. I recently spoke with John Jeffries, the founder of the New Canvassing Experience, a face-to-face fundraising agency focused on helping nonprofits find more monthly donors. We discussed how essential or non-essential fundraising really is (or seems to be). Here’s my take: All fundraisers are essential. Let me...

Did you know that 50% – 60% of your nonprofit’s direct mail results comes from whom you are mailing to? Target audience is crucial, and segmentation is just as important. But, to determine the best target audience for your nonprofit’s direct mail, you first must determine the goal of your appeal. For Any Nonprofit Organization There Are Only Three Ways To Grow Your Overall Fundraising: You must bring in new donors to keep supporting your...

As you’re going into the next decade, it might be a good time to take stock of some old ideas that can be new again. But how do you find those old ideas? Go back to some of your old packages and emails, and retest them. See what happens. When I worked at Reader’s Digest in Amsterdam several decades ago, we took two approaches that worked over and over again: We had a huge stock room of samples of prior campaigns. And every seven years or so,...

Every weekend, I go through my mail from the week before. It’s also when I create a swipe file of direct mail packs and ideas I like. I scan in what I like and toss the rest. This past week, I had a bunch of holiday cards. Some recognized my ongoing monthly gifts; others did not. If you have a holiday card on your direct mail production schedule, I highly recommend to include your monthly donors this time of the year. It’s a good time to say an...

This past weekend, I spent several hours going through the stack of direct mail packs I had  received in the past two weeks. I reviewed each one, identified organizations I’d like to donate to and then I scanned in those that could help give me some new ideas for year-end giving appeals for organizations I work with. Every year around this time, I talk to nonprofits, struggling to decide if they should send out a direct mail appeal at year-end....

I’m not going to write about monthly donors for a change. Instead, now is the time to get as many one-time gifts, which will help feed your monthly donor program next year. The year-end appeal season is here. The clock is ticking… The mail pile is growing… The inbox is overflowing… The question is: How do you stand out from the crowd? The second question is: Must you stand out from the crowd, or is it more important you get my attention at the...

I hope you were convinced from one of my earlier blogs that direct mail for nonprofits is still the most effective way to generate donations from your existing donors and generate new donors. The next question you might ask yourselves then is how often and how can you best reach out to your donors, so they’ll be most likely to respond. Let’s Start With How Often You Can Reach Out To Your Donors, So They’ll Continue To Love You. It’s always one...

I grew up with and in direct mail. I was fortunate to work at Reader’s Digest (RD) in Amsterdam right after college and it really shaped the rest of my career. I’ve always loved direct mail because you can measure results, but nothing beats seeing the boxes and boxes filled with responses coming back. I was ‘hooked’ on direct mail and all of us direct mail ‘nerds’ at RD loved receiving the latest direct mail samples sent to us from countries...

Before I got ‘hooked’ on monthly giving, I was already a direct mail ‘aficionado’. Why? Because direct mail works. Because people respond to it. Because you can measure what you’re doing. You can see how many fundraising messages you mail out and how many donations you receive back. But yet, so many people are no longer ‘trained’ in direct mail. They think that all donations are generated by social media. They think that everybody does...

As I attend conferences and presentations lately, I find I’m starting to be one of the “older hats” when it comes to fundraising experience. Some of my colleagues are starting to retire or slow down. The same applies for leaders and colleagues in nonprofits. I’ve seen major changes over just the past few years, but it’s a good reminder to get back to basics. Don’t worry, I’m not going to slow down any time soon, but I am concerned. Because I...

As you’re growing your number of monthly donors over time, it’s important to consider how you should include your monthly donors in your year-end giving. Of course, every organization is different, but it’s important to remember one thing: Unless you promised your sustainer that they would not hear from you in any way shape or form or if the donor asked you to suppress them from any future communications, these wonderful committed donors will...

I’m not talking about the latest soccer game. I’m not even talking about the online dating service, although, in a way, we fundraisers could be considered trying to “date” and then “marry” our donors. No, what I’m talking about is that wonderful, glorious “challenge” you offer, which you can use to “entice” other donors to make a gift. The amount raised is typically matched by a generous donor or a group of donors, and it helps you raise even...

Metrics! When I moved from a big international nonprofit to the agency side almost 18 years ago now, my then boss Tom Hurley quickly taught me these very famous words: “It depends!” As a consultant, those are great words to have in your tool box, especially working with organizations who are looking for certainties and proven ideas. And of course, we’d never recommend somebody to try something that had not already been tested by others. But,...

Now you’re in the middle of evaluating your appeal results, it’s up to you to make sure that the donor feels good about their giving experience—no matter what the amount. I recommend pulling in some extra people, volunteers and board members to make thank-you phone calls. Put some extra effort into sending out the thank-you letters pronto. And make sure you’re ready to send out tax letters well before the end of the month. If you’ve been...

This question comes up regularly, but especially now, as nonprofits are starting to prepare their fall and year-end appeals. Should you or should you not ask your monthly donors for money? The answer is a resounding YES. As in YES, you should absolutely ask your monthly donors for money at this time of year. Unless the donor told you that he or she doesn’t want to hear from you, now is the time to engage and ask for a special or extra gift. If...

This post was first published on the Charity How To blog. Before I got ‘hooked’ on monthly giving, I was already a direct mail ‘aficionado’. Why? Because direct mail works. Because people respond to it. Because you can measure what you’re doing. You can see how many fundraising messages you mail out and how many donations you receive back. But yet, so many people are no longer ‘trained’ in direct mail. They think that all donations are...

This post was prepared as a guest blog for Michael Rosen.  How can Nana Murphy make you a better fundraising professional? This is a post based upon the session I attended at the recent AFP International conference in Boston. Thank you, Michael, for sharing this post with your audience. The session I attended was called: From Ireland with Love, presented by Denisa Casement, CFRE, Head of Fundraising, Merchants Quay Ireland, Dublin,  Lisa...