Lessons from public television direct mail fundraising

From the mailbox: You can learn interesting things by carefully examining fundraising packs that show up in your mail...

This piece of direct mail fundraising came to us the other day from my local PBS station, KCTS. It's worth taking a look at with a sharp eye. Please note that while this is my local public TV station, I have no inside knowledge about this piece or the KCTS fundraising program. For all I know, this could be a huge success ... or a huge failure. Everything I have to say here is guesswork.

We are not members (though we are squarely in the demographics of public TV membership) -- this is a donor acquisition piece.

The Outer envelope

The Teaser: "Stand with us" is on my list of non-action calls-to-action. Donors don't give to stand with you, they give to make something happen that matters to them. But: I've seen this same teaser from KCTS for a long time. Maybe years. It's possible they're blindly using a weak teaser without testing or knowledge, but I doubt it. This probably works in this case.

Colored paper showing through the window: A good thing.

Back of outer envelope

Everyone sees the back of your envelope if they decide to open it. It's space we should use. They've used it here to promote the "cause" of public television. (And the Recycled Paper thing? Very good for this audience!)

Main form

That's right, there's no letter in this pack. That is usually a big mistake!

But there are exceptions, and this may be one of them. It's a well-known organization and the ask is pretty close to universally understood. So (I'm guessing) they can basically send a "bill" to prospective donors and do well.

Most of us, not likely. Include a letter unless you've tested away from using one.

Return envelope

This return envelope does two smart things:

• It uses yellow stock. Using a color other than white for your return envelope is a dependable way to boost response. (In fact, consider other colors of paper for just about anything in your direct mail pack!)
• It includes a reminder what this whole thing is about. Even a very simple statement like this can keep the giving momentum going for busy and distracted donors. You're printing on the envelope anyway ... say something on it!

If you have inside knowledge about this pack or form the public broadcasting world, tell us about it in the comments below.

from Future Fundraising Now http://bit.ly/2wf1uNm