20 Direct-Marketing Ideas for Small Nonprofits, Part 2

She shared an ask string test from Food and Friends. In version 1, the ask string in the e-mail simply read: "A gift of $25, $50, $100 or more will mean so much to so many."

Version 2 provided a higher ask string with more detail: "$24 can help provide a day's worth of meals to one client; $100 can help a client receive a week of fresh produce; $560 can help give a client one month's worth of meals; $1000 can help deliver an entire day of meals to all our clients."

The more detailed, varied ask string test saw a 15 percent increase in response, Toles said.