We all know that Return On Investment (ROI) for Direct Mail acquisition makes it harder to put forward a business case that will be acceptable to a reluctant board or cautious executive team. Our earlier insights show that more than half of our first-time high-value donors are also new to our organisations. We haven’t yet explored the source of these recruits in detail but will be investigating in our FY23 program.

It raises questions about how we can actively recruit donors at the high-value level if upgrading them isn’t the predominant mechanism for high-value acquisition.

Clarke Vincent from The Fundraising Agency and I were recently discussing this, and he mentioned some of the success one of his clients was having including asks for $1,000 in their digital acquisition. He was surprised how many people were willing to donate at that level as their first gift.

With this in mind, we can consider how we might reuse this approach in our Direct Mail acquisition. One of the suggestions we have as a result of these insights is to find a strong proposition for our acquisition campaigns that will demonstrate a need at that level. While including this ask, we don’t want to discourage donors with lower means to give, so our letter should focus on our standard value options. Our response mechanism can include a high-value option, allowing us to identify and acquire high-value donors.

An Acquisition Response Mechanism mock-up with a $1,000 ask

This high-value ask should be a stand-alone item and have a strong proposition that demonstrates the impact a high-value gift can achieve.

While this may not bring in huge volumes of high-value donors, it does create a clear avenue for us to maximise the opportunity present in sending DM acquisition. Should we receive any high-value gifts, this will heavily offset some of the cost of the campaign, improve ROI, and grow our high-value donor base.

If you want to improve your understanding of fundraising and see how your program is performing, register for Fundraising Insights in FY23. We’re doing a deep dive into when is the best time of year to recruit cash donors, and how does the next appeal affect donor activation.