Storytelling in Fundraising: A Guide for Skeptics
It may surprise you, but there are professionals in the charitable sector who think using a storytelling approach in fundraising is a bunch of gobbledygook. Are you clutching your pearls? That was my reaction, too. A few years back someone from an unnamed charity told me that they don’t use stories because they didn’t want […]
Let Your Donors be the Jury
I’ve been a partner at Good Works for 25 years now. But, before I became a Good Worker, I was a client – twice! Back in the 1990s, I learned direct mail fundraising from the experts at Good Works. There was one lesson they taught me that stands above all the others – and that […]
Introducing the 2021 Canadian Direct Mail Benchmarks Report
The wait is over! For those of you looking for up-to-date, pandemic-proof, all-Canadian direct mail benchmarks, look no further. The 2021 Canadian Direct Mail Benchmarks Report is here—and you can download it (for free!) right now. Early, non-biased reviews are already pouring in, and they’re electric: […]
Baking a Big Data Cake!
When we set about to bake our direct mail fundraising cake, it is easy to get excited about some of the higher-profile ingredients that go into the recipe. Things like the story and the artwork are important, don’t get me wrong… Important Ingredients That Make The Cake Rise For the sake of this baking metaphor, […]
Direct Mail: Alive and Well!
A very long time ago when I worked in print, colleagues were concerned that the proliferation of computers would sound the death knell for the printing industry. It was assumed that books and manuals, for example, would all be saved to servers and floppy disks (ha! remember those?), and no one would want to buy […]
What To Do With New Digital Donors During a Pandemic
For many charities, COVID-19 has impacted not just on revenue overall, but the mix of channels that drive it. As uncertainty around how the virus could be spread took hold, many donors continued giving through the mail. Even more started giving online. Many of the non-profits we work with are reporting unprecedented online giving and […]
Choosing The Best Imagery For A Killer Direct Mail Campaign
How much thought goes into the creative of an appeal? In short … a lot! Above all, direct mail projects are centered around compelling stories that engage readers and show why a cause matters. This is what fuels donations. The imagery that’s used in a package is an important part of the process. Photographs are […]
Big Fish, Small Fish
We have two big dogs at my house. They eat tons of food. They need to get haircuts (because they’re extremely shaggy!) and occasionally, they need daycare when we haven’t had enough time to play with them. Now, there’s a PetSmart just a couple of minutes from our place that does all those things. It’s […]