Increasing engagement with your mid-level donors
We love working with our clients on their mid-level donor programs. Whether we’re creating special mid-level donor recruitment or upgrade packages, brainstorming on mid-level branding and benefits or providing strategy on how we can incorporate high-touch elements for these special donors into our clients’ current direct mail program, we strive to find solutions that are customized for each client and their needs.
The Challenge
While mid-level donor officers are starting to become more common in our sector, a majority of organizations don’t yet have the resources available to hire a mid-level team. Nor do many of them have the budget, or time, to create a separate mid-level donor program that acts apart from their annual direct mail program. But given the importance of this group of donors, we are working closely with our clients to further engage their mid-level donors with their current program, budget and staff resources in mind.
The Solution
The addition of handwritten, personalized notes on their mid-level donors’ letters and a live signature at the end of the letter has worked remarkably well for several of our clients. The added personalization is rare in direct mail and certainly seems to be catching donors’ attention. And to take this a step further, a handwritten address on the outer envelope and live stamp also helps. There are even ways to have the mail house do the handwritten address on the outer envelope to save you time.
For some clients who may not have the staff capacity for the hand written notes, we’ve included non-personalized handwritten lift notes (that are initially handwritten and then printed on mass) with grateful notes to donors from field officers, doctors or program beneficiaries.
Additionally, our deep dive inserts have been working well for one of our clients whose mid-level donors let us know that they’d appreciate a deeper look at the issues that the organization is helping to solve.
And we can’t stress enough how important it is to thank your mid-level donors over the phone, add handwritten notes on their thank you letters and maybe drop them an email or call with news about their support.
The Results
For one client who added handwritten, personalized notes and a live signature to their mid-level donors’ holiday appeal, they saw a wonderful increase in response from their mid-level donors, raising 318% more revenue from these donors than the previous year. Another client who did the same across several of their mailings raised 74% more from these donors than the previous year. And we’ve seen lift notes, hand written envelopes and/or deep dive inserts increase revenue by 18% or more.
We are so thrilled to see our clients building stronger relationships with their incredibly generous supporters. And we hope that their amazing supporters are enjoying the extra information and gratitude through their mailings.
Client: Increasing Engagement With Your Mid-Level Donors
Services: Mid-Level Donor Programs
