8 Smart Mailing Tips for Small Organizations

Smart Tip No. 7
Don't neglect email and social media. Chances are you have a lot of followers, "likes," email-only contacts and a variety of other people who have a connection with you (even though they haven't provided their postal addresses). Reduce your letter to a much shorter e-appeal for those for whom you only have an email address and add multiple links to give. Extract some short, punchy lines for social-media posts, and add an "ask." Tell your followers what you've accomplished, then invite them to "take the next step" and become a supporter today. You probably won't get a massive response, but every person who gives can be cultivated in 2015.

Smart Tip No. 8
Be in the inbox and on the social-media news feed on Giving Tuesday. This is the one day a year when we all get free media urging people to make donations. Sure, it may not be as explicit as, "Make a donation to XYZ organization," but when your contacts hear about Giving Tuesday, be sure they also see an email or post from you with a link to make a gift. Don't make people scramble to find your donation page; spoon-feed them the link so when the urge to give happens, you're front and center for their response.

Yes, your organization is small, your budget is smaller and your available time is the smallest yet. You want to grow so that this time next year, you have more supporters — and more money to accomplish the mission you are passionate about. This old dog knows from experience how hard it is to get it all done when you're doing the work of two or three (or more). All this makes mailing at year-end even more important. Take a chance ... share your heart ... ask boldly ... and invite your mailing list to be part of your greatest year ever: 2015.