Share the LOVE

February 2, 2012

Valentines Day – February 14 – is twelve days away. Get ready now ’cause it’s a great time to share the love and show your donors, members, advocates, and volunteers how much you appreciate them.

As we know, whatever you’re doing in direct mail for Valentines Day is already done except for tracking the results. And hopefully you’ve integrated that with social media and email.

But just in case you didn’t do anything via direct mail … there’s still time to send supporters a Valentine by email AND social media.

Critical point: For this to work you absolutely positively MUST have reader-centric messaging. This is ALL about them and what they make possible.

Here’s an idea you could whip together in a few hours:

  • Create a short video of your staff wishing supporters Happy Valentines Day. They can shout, “Happy Valentines Day” as a group. But I suggest you choose one person to take 20-30 seconds expressing everyone’s gratitude for what your donors, advocates, etc. make possible. Include an example or two of what donors have done. Have FUN with this. Maybe everyone holds a red heart they made out of construction paper. Or each heart has a different message on it and the camera scans over the messages as the speaker is talking.
     
  • You can promote the video on your Facebook page and through email.
     
  • Post it on your nonprofit’s YouTube channel.
     
  • Have a link to the video (along with a line of teaser copy) on your homepage and a few other key pages of your website. Draw web visitors’ eye to it by including a short graphic with the text and link, or possibly have the video itself on your website if you can.
     
  • Encourage supporters to share your Valentines greeting with folks they know who also like what you do. And make it EASY for them to share via email and social media.

Share the love. Cultivate your supporters with a simple Valentines greeting. Keep it simple. Have fun.

If your staff looks a bit awkward in the video – so what? That’s a genuine emotion most of us can relate to and it also shows sincerity. It will help donors, advocates, volunteers and members to connect with real people instead of a faceless organization. It will strengthen your relationship with them.

Related posts:

10 Suggestions to cultivate website visitors

Donor Cultivation and Natural Disasters … ideas for ANY charity or association regardless of your mission

Donors are a lot like Teddy Bears … why they give and give

Want to shed more light on this topic? I welcome your comments - add yours HERE.

It Pays To Go First Class

January 31, 2012

Perhaps you’ve seen the announcement by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) about sending 2-ounces for the price of 1-ounce. They refer to this as their “2nd Ounce Free” program.

Let me say right off that I’m not an expert on postal rates or deciphering mailing programs through the USPS.

But I’ve read a news article, the USPS press release plus their Fact Sheet … and it appears there may be times nonprofits can take advantage of the new pricing. So I decided to share what I discovered with you.

First the basics of the new USPS program along with links where you can find all the details.

Effective January 22, 2012, businesses mailing First-Class Mail automation, presort letters using “2nd Ounce Free” pricing can mail letters weighing up to 2 ounces at the 1-ounce postage rate.

Link to press release: U.S. Postal Service Launches “2nd Ounce Free”

Link to news article in PrintWeek: USPS Offers Direct Mailers “2nd Ounce Free”

Link to USPS website and Fact Sheet: https://www.usps.com/business/first-class-mail-for-business.htm [On this page in tiny bold print about half-way down the page, you’ll see a blue link “RTF” that when clicked gives you the Fact Sheet.]

According to the press release and statements by Gary Reblin, vice president, Domestic Products, “First-Class Mail automation, presort letters are primarily generated by commercial mailers of bills and statements — or transaction mail. 2nd Ounce Free pricing will provide these customers with greater value from their transaction mailings by letting them include an additional ounce that can be used for operational or marketing purposes at no additional cost.”

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think there are opportunities here for higher-volume nonprofit mailers to send select direct mail letters (i.e., First-Class Mail® Presort and Automation letters) where the second ounce will be free.

Consider upgrade letters to increase the number of donors in your sustainer program. Moving donors from low to mid-level, and from mid-level to major donor. Planned giving and legacy campaigns.

Associations could add promotional pieces on webinars and conferences to renewal letters. Why not test a segment of new members about to renew for the first time?

At the very least you could partner with a for-profit mailer and include an insert about your nonprofit in their envelope with the company’s billing statement, bank statement, credit card offer, etc. Insert media is a great way to piggy-back on this opportunity.

This isn’t a limited time offer. As of today it’s a new pricing structure so I encourage you to explore ways to make the most of your nonprofit direct mail budget. It pays to go first class!

Related posts:

Stretch your nonprofit acquisition budget … includes direct mail tips

6 tips for monthly giving and direct mail programs

How to build donor or member loyalty

2 comments

Message testing the cost-effective way

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Goal: To know before mailing that your message and offer will inspire donors to give. That’s what I bet you would love to experience with each direct mail campaign and email appeal – whether it’s acquisition or renewal. There’s a cost-effective way to do just that. There’s a way to increase the odds dramatically that [...]

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Part 2 – 18 ways to build your nonprofit email list

January 24, 2012

You’ll find the first nine (9) ways to build your nonprofit email list in my last post. Below are numbers ten through eighteen plus links to other helpful related posts. 10 – Whenever a donor, member or supporter calls your nonprofit, have your call center invite them to share their email address. (Refer to method [...]

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18 ways to grow your email list for fundraising, cultivation, etc.

January 19, 2012

Email ought to be as integral to your fundraising and cultivation efforts as direct mail and your nonprofit website. And regardless of the channel, we all want bigger lists. So how might you grow your nonprofit email list? 1 – Give donors, members, advocates and prospects a darn good reason WHY they should sign-up for [...]

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Mommy. Mommy. Look at me!

January 17, 2012

I have a dream that thousands upon thousands of charities and associations will embrace reader-centric messaging in 2012. That they’ll realize the power of putting donors and members in the spotlight. And as a result they will enjoy higher response – more new donors and members, higher retention rates, more upgrades and larger sustainer files, [...]

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The nonprofit with the best data wins

January 12, 2012

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a charity, a professional association, a company selling products and services to other businesses (B2B), or a consumer brand (B2C) … accurate data that you can segment, filter and analyze is vital to the success of your organization. That was just one of the 25 points I wrote about in [...]

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The team approach to fundraising

January 10, 2012

In this post the “team” I’m referring to is which marketing channels you join together to form a more powerful result. In other words: Integrated or multi-channel marketing. Each channel is a team member working with other team members (channels) to achieve together far more than what any single one could achieve. Why is this [...]

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Stretch Your Nonprofit Acquisition Budget

January 5, 2012

I continue to be surprised at the number of nonprofits who don’t have a control. I’m referring to a direct mail letter (or email) for acquisition of new donors or members. Having a control has always been the wisest approach. And this is especially true in tough economic times. Controls help stretch your budget You’ve [...]

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How color impacts online donors as well as your direct mail packages [INFOGRAPHIC]

January 3, 2012

How important is color? Can it possibly impact how much people donate? Or how much they respond to any call-to-action? The answer is an emphatic YES! Although I’m not a graphic designer, I study research on how color affects the choices people make. And people are people so even if the research is related to [...]

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