Fundraising Direct Mail That Drives Online Response

By David Hazeltine

Another option: It’s never been easier to give to [Your Organization] — there are three easy ways…

Online – at www.yourorganization.org/giving (and get a free gift)
By Phone – at 800.123.4567
By Mail – simply complete and return the reply form, in the envelope we’ve provided.

P.S. of letters
Try: P.S. An online renewal means your dollars go even further. Renew now at www.anytown.org/renew — it’s fast, easy and secure. And when you do, we’ll send you an "Anytown Museum Magnetic Dry Erase Board" — our gift to you! (see insert for details)

Buckslips or back of reply forms
Potential ideas: Online gifts are convenient — and make your gifts go further! Gifts made at our secure online-giving site save us valuable staff time by eliminating data entry and processing tasks. And, they save you the trouble of looking for stamps and going to the post office too! Please visit www.yourorganization.org/giving right now, while this mailing is still in your hands. (You can also add a photo and description of a back-end premium here as well.)

Reply form, lift notes and other inserts
Use some of the copy above to reinforce the options on any and all of the elements of your mail package:

Back-end premium
Offer a back-end premium in exchange for an online gift. You may have noticed the reference to a gift in the examples above. This is one more strategy that will increase the number of online responses to your appeal/campaign — not exempt of testing, of course. Offer an inexpensive item (and relatively inexpensive to fulfill, too) that will appeal to all generations and both genders.

Donors who are on the fence about responding by mail or online will likely give online because people like to get free stuff. You’ll need to segment your acknowledgments to fulfill the premium only to the online responders, but the additional revenue you receive from this segment will more than pay for that process.