The Multichannel Renewal Campaign

Step 4. Launch. Unleash the well-trained on your best donors. Send out the most powerful, compelling direct-mail notice along with appropriate e-mail and SMS text before or after the notice.

Step 5. Continue through the notices with a mix of channel techniques.

Use primer or pre-postal mail e-mails and chasers or follow-up e-mails and SMS. Monitor returns on each notice, and change the mix according to what you learn from each experience.

Step 6. Send acknowledgment and thank-you/recognition messages.

To further motivate donors and boost responses to your appeals and other efforts, promptly thank donors for renewing, send them some form of recognition if possible, and make absolutely sure you've answered the key question that lurks in the mind of every donor, "Did my contribution make a difference?"

Finally, carefully track the results from each channel and combine them to evaluate final results. Experiment with adding more or fewer e-mail contacts. Test telemarketing before the first notice, before the third notice or even later in the series. The point is to see how the mix of channels works best for you.

Then share those results and seek suggestions (and bask in the praise!) of colleagues in other organizations. We're all in it together.

(This article was excerpted from the book "The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising," published by DirectMarketingIQ.)

Roger Craver is editor-in-chief of the fundraising blog The Agitator, and founder and CEO of DonorTrends. He is also a member of the FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board. Reach him at RogerCraver@gmail.com