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Spearheading End of Year Appeals

Alliance for Biking & Walking Mutual Aid WebinarWednesday, September 24, 2014

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Te best time to start planning your end-o-year undraising campaign was last month. Te second best time is NOW. On this webinar, development directors rom two prominent bike advocacy organizations joined us to discuss planning all giving campaigns.

Insight from Lili AfkhamiDevelopment Director, League of American Bicyclists

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Te ideal mailing date or an end-o-year appeal is mid- to late October. You should start your planning no later than mid-September. A reasonable turnaround time or an end-o-year appeal is about one month, but it can be shortened to two weeks or design, revision and printing i necessary. Printing will take 5 days to 2 weeks, depending on the urgency and complexity o the job. I your resources are limited, ask your designer to create a template that you can use or appeal letters over and over again.

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Beore you begin working on messaging, determine the purpose o the mailing or your organization, especially i you will need buy-in rom others (such as leaders or other program staff). I this is your first outreach in a long time, you should consider the appeal to be a stewardship opportunity as well as a undraising oppor-tunity: use the first part o your letter to get your audience re-invested in your organization. I you have already been in regular contact with the recipients o the appeal, you can go straight to the ask. (See examples rom St. Mary’s College Seahawks appeal).

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Tere are three critical pieces o a direct mail package:

1. Letter2. Remittance slip.

A list o suggested gif amounts on a remittance slip is called an “ask string.” Te rule o thumb is to list your desired gif as the middle value in the ask string, between higher and lower amounts.

3. Outer envelope

4. A

reply envelope

is also a good thing to have. You can skip it i you need to save money on the campaign. I you do include a reply envelope, make sure it’s smaller than the mailing envelope so it fits inside. Many organizations use a standard #10 envelope as their mailer and then select a #9 or a #6-3/4 as their remittance envelope.

Click here for a chart of common envelope sizes.

You can consider pre-stamping the reply envelopes o your most select donors as a special service.

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Te most successul individual appeal campaign in the League’s history was conducted last winter and Lili shared some o the elements that made it work:

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A League board member had already pledged to give $150,000, so the undraising team used that gif to leverage their end-o-year giving by presenting it as a match challenge or their other individual donors. Presenting an existing gif as a match opportunity is a great way to inspire your donors to “stretch” and give a little more than normal.

List your desired gift in the middle of the “ask string,” between higher and lower amounts.



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Consider asking donors for their personal story along with their response. Cascade’s end-of-year appeal is a good way to pinpoint donors with higher capacity to give.

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Te letter’s messaging included a personal story rom the match donor about bicycling and the important role the bicycling community had played in her lie.

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Te appeal materials were custom-designed just or this campaign, but were consistent with the League’s brand-ing across all programs and communications.

See exam-ples from this campaign in the Alliance Resource Library

(members-only).

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Premiums (small gifs to donors as incentives or thanks or their donations) are a con-troversial subject in the world o individual undraising. While premiums can inspire higher initial response rates, many proessionals discourage their use as they can en-courage donors to see their donations as a transaction rather than a philanthropic gif. Lili advises using premiums sparingly, i at all.

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Te League relied heavily on e-mail and social media or its successul match challenge. Several e-mail ollow-ups are good; however, make sure to cover your bases by includ-ing language thanking your donors i they have already donated. Donors may perceive repeated asks afer they’ve already mailed a check as “pushy.”

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Don’t ditch your mail campaign in avor o email yet. While the upront cost is higher, studies and experience continue to show that direct mail campaigns outperorm elec-tronic campaigns in response rates and long-term donor engagement.

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You can try growing your list through purchasing or trading lists with other organiza-tions, but list acquisition efforts have historically had low ROIs and the donors you get will not have as great an affinity with your organization as those who become donors afer already being involved in other ways.

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ry including an opportunity or the recipient to send eedback or share their personal stories. Te chance to share their stories on the remittance slip or offer their thoughts via a brie survey can increase response rates.

Insight from Tarrel WrightDevelopment Director, Cascade Bicycle Club

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Cascade Bicycling Club sends out an end-o-year appeal to about 20,000 people every year. Tis is CBC’s only direct mail undraising push, afer the development team ound their mid-year appeal to be unprofitable.

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Direct mail is actually one o the least efficient ways to raise money in the short term. For example, CBC’s 20,000-person mailing only yields about $30,000 a year. However, the true value o a direct mail cam-paign is its opportunity to pinpoint individuals who have the potential to give at a higher level.

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According to arrell, an individual who gives $250 or more as a first time donor is “signaling that they want some attention.” Cascade Bicycling Club has an established system in place or



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Segment your lists by program interest area and by donor history.

cultivating potential major donor prospects rom the annual appeal.

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Donors who give between $250 and $499 in a single donation are considered “mid-range” donors at CBC. Individuals who give this amount in a first-time gif receive a personal phone call rom the development team to thank them or their gif and learn more about their interests in CBC. Te team will try to schedule a meeting or take the donor on a ride.

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Donors who give $500 or over as a first-time gif will receive a personal phone call rom arrell, the Executive Director, or a member o the Board. Tese individuals are flagged as Major Gifs prospects and are assigned to the Major Gifs team or stewardship.

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Tere are many ways to segment a donor database to custom-ize a major mailing. arrell discussed two o the more popular ones: segmenting by program interest and by donation levels.

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Donors can develop affinities or very specific programs, such as club rides or programs that work with at-risk youth. I you have a way o tracking this data in your database (such as event registrations or other), you can tailor their appeal to ocus on the program that they’re most interested in. I your donors make a contribution with the expectation that their money will support a specific program, it is your responsibility to make sure that the unds are actually assigned to that program.

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Cascade Bicycling Club segments and personalizes its direct mail appeals based on dona-tion history. Mid-range ($250 - $499) donors receive hand-written notes on their appeal letters. I a donor has given a total o $500 or more in the past year, the development team makes every attempt to ensure that the appeal letter’s note is written by someone the donor knows at Cascade. Board members are expected to give some time writing notes on EOY appeal letters to major donors and prospects.

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Cascade tracks the ollowing inormation or its appeals:

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Response rates, both overall and subdivided by prospect lists or sources

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Cost per dollar raised

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Number o first-time donors

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Number o renewed gifs rom last year’s first-time donors (people who donate or a second year in a row are in the “sweet spot” or becoming engaged supporters)

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Number o people who give at the mid-level range

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Number o people who give at $500 or more

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In addition to tracking campaign-specific metrics, Cascade also ollows the giving amounts o mid-level and major donors over time. Ideally, all long-term donors will increase their annual gif every second or third year.

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I you have a database you can trust, one o the most effective things you can do is to mention how much a donor gave last year (it shows you are paying attention) and ask