20 Direct-Marketing Ideas for Small Nonprofits, Part 2

The idea, Temeles said, is to provide different ways to get donors online.

"Keep it in front of donors everywhere. Get them to think about online. Put the URL everywhere," she said.

Likewise, she said you should ask for a mailing address anywhere you can online, as long as there is a good reason for it — provide an offer as an incentive to provide the mail address.

8. Downscale
Temeles said it's always a good idea for smaller organizations to look at the larger organizations to see what they're doing and try implementing the lessons you take away on a smaller scale to fit your organization.

"Organizations with big budgets and file sizes do lots of testing and analytics. They can do the learnings for you," she said. "See what they're doing, and version it for your donors if it's suitable. Think about what the message is, and apply it to your own organization."

9. Tie it all together through multichannel marketing
Reinforce your message by adding that language to every channel — website, e-newsletter, social media, direct mail, etc. — Toles said.

"Have a concrete strategy on how to implement that. When designing a message and schedule, think of all the different pieces you already have to implement into the strategy," she said. "Tie it all together."

She provided an example from Food and Friends. Food and Friends implemented a direct-mail letter and an e-mail from Executive Chef Mark Locraft, with the e-mail phase going out before the direct-mail piece, and then a follow-up e-mail after the letter was mailed. Everything referenced the same campaign — the Summer Food Fund — and kept a consistent tone with the message coming from Locraft.

10. Experiment with e-mail testing
Toles suggested testing everything from subject lines to headlines, ask strings, length and language in your e-mail campaigns to improve e-mail strategies and learn more about your online donors.