It’s that time of year again. The holidays are near and the year-end giving crunch is on. GivingTuesday results are in. Were you up? Were you down?
The year-end emails are scheduled or close to being ready to be scheduled. Plans for calendar year 2024 are pretty much final as well. You’re doing great!
But could you do better? Maybe there are a few little tweaks to make to improve your results.
That’s why I am sharing a few bloopers, or oopses I saw recently in direct mail and emails that could have been prevented.
You see, it’s all about the segmentation — in the mail and in the email.
So here are my top four bloopers I saw when it came to recurring giving in just the past few months. And it’s not just one organization. No, it happened with multiple organizations. And it didn’t happen with small organizations, but rather with larger ones.
Some of the organizations I know have substantial numbers of recurring donors. Don’t worry. I’m not going to share who they are.
1. Requesting a Monthly Gift From a Monthly Donor in an Appeal
As you know, I’m a monthly donor to over 40 organizations so I received a bunch of extra gift appeals in the past few weeks. Several of them include a beautiful thank you for my monthly gifts in the letter’s P.S. Some even had a handwritten look note on the top of the letter. All great!
But then in that same appeal, on the reply form, there was a tick box with a request to make this a monthly gift. Oops!
You’ve already done the hard work of segmenting the recurring donors in your mail file. Don’t ask for a monthly gift if you’re sending an appeal to someone who is already giving monthly. Why not take the next step and remove the ask line on these?
It is as easy as a laser line so you can include it when needed (if you’re also sending it to donors who are not yet giving monthly) and exclude it when you’re sending it to existing recurring donors.
2. Asking for a Monthly Gift in a Thank-You Letter to a Monthly Donor
In some cases, I’m still receiving thank-you letters for my automated monthly gifts. Several of them look like they’re standard letters that are spit out from the system and don’t even thank me for my monthly gift.
But then, there was a buck slip asking me to consider a monthly gift and a line on the reply form to consider a monthly gift. Oops!
By the way, I have no problem with buck slips about monthly giving in thank-you letters, as long as it’s not asking for a monthly gift in a thank-you letter sent to existing recurring donors.
Also, mind you, if your process is to use monthly donor thank-you letters to share an organization overview along with a great story on how my gifts are making a difference, that’s fine. An even better option could be to use that opportunity to ask for an upgrade or conversion to a higher retaining way of giving (like electronic bank transfer). Then include a little story or motivator why that’s needed.
3. Sending a Monthly-Donor Newsletter With a Monthly Giving Request on the Reply Form
One organization sent me a great newsletter. It was branded toward its monthly donors — even on the outside envelope. The reply form asked me for an extra gift.
But then right below that was the organization’s requesting me to consider a monthly gift. Oops!
4. Emailing a Monthly Donor for a Monthly Gift
I’ve been giving to this organization for quite a while. The nonprofit often uses video and surveys with requests to join its monthly giving program. I received one email asking me to consider an upgrade as it had a matching gift opportunity, which is great.
But then, just a few minutes later on that same day, I received an email asking me to consider a monthly gift. Oops!
Sometimes it’s a segmentation issue. Sometimes it’s a timing issue. Sometimes it’s a design, printing or mail merge issue. It may be a coding or systems issue, especially for donors who may have multiple emails or have signed up for multiple programs. Maybe there needs to be a record consolidation because they are in multiple email systems. Trust me, I see this or a combination thereof all of the time!
So please do yourself a favor, look at what you’re doing and then fix it for next year? Thank you for all you do! Have a wonderful holiday season, a terrific, successful, record-breaking 2023 and an even better 2024!
This blog was first published on Nonprofit Pro on December 11, 2023.
