Maybe you're listening to your donors too much.

Surprised to hear me ask that?

After all, fundraisers are in the business of supplying donors with what they want and need. The problem is, what they tell you they want is so often not at all what really motivates them to respond.

Virtuous blog tells the sad tale of some customer-listening done by Walmart, at When Not Listening to Your Donors Is the Right Thing to Do.

Seems the retail giant did some research and found out that most customers wished the stores were "less cluttered." I get that. I would have said the same thing.

So Walmart got less cluttered. And sales dropped $1.9 billion. Why?

... they listened to the wrong data -- what customers said instead of what customers did. Not to pile on ... but they took this critical mistake and decided to make it exponentially worse. They decided to take the response as gospel and forget everything they previously knew about customer purchasing behavior.

(I think they've since gone back to clutter.)

Here's the thing. Those people who wanted less clutter were telling the truth -- as far as they know it. They only have access to their conscious opinions. Their real behavior is more deeply rooted in their brains, in those subconscious lizard-like places that drive most human behavior.

It's the same with donors. Ask them what they want, and they'll give you all kinds of terrible advice. They want to hear from you once a year. They don't need emotional stories or suggested ask amounts. They don't want long messages or emotional photos. They tell you they'll donate more if you don't do those things.

Except they won't.

Listening means paying attention to what donors do. And taking what they say with a grain of salt.

There's nothing wrong with donors. That's just the way everyone is. Including you and me.

Do your fundraising in the real world -- the world of behavior, not opinions.

The executive director got an email from an organization she supports. It contained a link to a thank-you video. It was polished but simple, and was even personalized to her. A nice piece of donor stewardship.

The executive director, a helpful and energetic person, forwarded the email to her development director with a comment attached: This is wonderful! We need to do this for our donors!

The development director forwarded it to me with another comment: Please tell me this is a terrible idea that we should not do!

I couldn't oblige. Thank-you videos for donors are a good idea -- assuming enough of your donors are online (they probably are), and you really thank donors, and not make it a brag-fest about yourself.

The problem was that there was no real strategy for building relationships with donors. Or anything else, really.

Thire strategy was this: Whenever the boss or a board member gets an idea, drop everything and do it!

This might sound familiar. Because it's the operating strategy for a lot of nonprofit fundraising programs.

• Put QR codes all over everything!
  
• Amazon Smile!
  
• Move all fundraising onto Instagram!
  
• Make everything this shade of green I just read makes people happy!
  
• Start accepting crypto!
  
• Create a special proposal for my cousin's son-in-law's neighbor, who is very wealthy and would probably love us!
  
• Buy ads in this cool magazine!
  

Bad ideas? Maybe. Some might be good ideas.

But they're all bad if they aren't connected to a strategy. They become the project of the week (or month) while critical, on-strategy work gets delayed. Or a strategic plan never gets formulated.

A strategic and strategically led organization would know their donor retention rate. They'd know if they are replacing lost donors with new donors at an acceptable rate. They'd know how many donors they are moving to monthly giving. Upgrading to midlevel or major status. How many bequest leads they are generating.

And they'd be pursuing activities that plug holes and take advantage of strengths.

Instead of dropping everything and running to the window the way a dog does when you yell "Squirrel!"

Ideas are great. Having ideas is something leaders should do. But far more important is having a strategy that guides your time and energy every day.

When you have a strategy, that cool video the boss got can spark a quick conversation:

• What does the idea do to meet the needs we've identified as most important?
  
• Should it take precedent over the things we're already doing?
  
• If this is something that fits our strategy, where in the "queue" should this be?
  

Sometimes, new and unexpected things should jump the queue and become an instant priority. Responding to the pandemic back in the spring of 2020 was that kind of thing.

When you are led by strategy, rather than what shows up in someone's inbox, you can make smart decisions about what you should do, what should wait, and what you can ignore.

That's what true nonprofit leadership should be like.

A lot of fundraising writing uses a tone you'd never use with people you know and care about. If you did, they'd slap your face. Or call 911, seeking immediate help for you.

Here's the kind of writing nonsense I mean:

• Phony superlatives, like "leading," "best," "most important."
  
• Meaningless, high-flown claims, like "cutting-edge" and "pioneering."
  
• Professional jargon that makes sense inside your office, but leaves donors wondering what's up.
  
• Abstractions like "hope," "community," and "justice." They sound noble, but they don't reveal anything specific.
  
• Organizational self-aggrandizement. Look-at-us copy that talks at donors, not to them.
  
• Unnaturally long and complex sentences that abandon all pretense of human speech.
  
• Lawyer-junk like © and ™.
  
• Legal disclaimers and other CYA weasel talk.
  

It all adds up to a tone of voice that nobody would ever use in person.

Your donors, like everyone else, is getting wary about inhuman marketing language. They know it more often than not signifies irrelevance and semi-truthful claims. They prefer authentic, human conversation ... and increasingly ignore the other stuff as the noise it is.

Your nonprofit organization is doing real things. There's no reason to sound phony when you talk about it. It's not like you're struggling to market one of 12 types of virtually identical detergents. Be real!

Here are three steps to keep your writing human:

1. Pretend you're talking to your mother (or someone else you know well). Fake-sounding writing will stand out a mile when you do that.
   
2. Read your copy out loud. If it doesn't sound at least somewhat like speech, send it back for revision.
   
3. Ban the committee writing process. That will always make your copy sound inhuman.
   

Lift Monday: A series about the art and science of "Lifts" in direct mail fundraising.

My favorite type of direct mail lift is the kind you ask the donor to send back: bounce backs.

Ideally, there's some kind of logical reason you've sent them something and they send it back, usually to sign their name and it will end up in the hands of someone who will appreciate it.

Here are some examples from my experience:

• Shipping label. When your offer is for donors to cover shipping costs for donated gifts-in-kind (food, medical supplies, tools, etc.) The donor signs the label (on actual crack-and-peel sticker paper works best by far) and it will be attached to a box or container in the shipment. This has proved incredibly successful more than once.
  
• Bookplates. When the offer is books (including Bibles), a sticker (or a sheet of stickers) that say something like "This book is a donation of [Ms. Edna Q. Donor]" (the name can be personalized on the bookplate or you can ask the donor to write their name).
  
• Greeting cards. Something the donor signs that will be seen by a beneficiary: Get well soon, thinking of you, praying for you ...
  
• Practical items that can fit in an envelope, such as a ruler or protractor for students.
  

  Sometimes the logic for the bounce back is quite thin: I've sent you this [item] so you could see it for yourself and realize what an incredible difference your donation can make... And really, some seriously illogical bounce backs do just fine.

  It should go without saying that you should do what you say you'll do with the bounce backs that bounce back. It's unethical to do otherwise.

  It's possible to do a type of bounce back in digital fundraising. It's just that the donor doesn't get to handle the thing that will end up in the hands of someone they helped.

  Here's a bounce back shipping label:

  
  

  Read the other Lift Monday posts

What people are Googling is a sometimes-scary look into the soul of mankind. Here are 2021's top 10 posts on this blog that people found via Google. Enjoy this not-at-all scary look into the soul of people curious about fundraising.

1. It's one word -- science proves. (Posted: 29 December 2010) Is it "fund raising" or "fundraising"? Back in 2010, I came up with a definitive answer. People keep asking Google which it is.
   
2. 10 tips for great newsletter interviews. (Posted: 19 October 2010) Super-helpful guest post by super-smart fundraising writer Jennifer Miller.
   
3. 5 donor-friendly ways to raise unrestricted funds. (Posted: 27 February 2020) This can help you handle that often frustrating impasse between the specificity it takes to motivate donors and the need for the flexible funding your organization needs.
   
4. What happens when you send a check to your donors?. (Posted: 30 January 2014) I suspect that many who Google this (and the next one) are outside of the fundraising profession, wondering what's up with a mailing that includes an actual check made out to the donor.
   
5. Why fundraisers send those annoying address labels. (Posted: 24 November 2014) A look at the economics of address labels (and other "freemiums" in direct mail fundraising.
   
6. 15 really bad real ideas from real nonprofits. (Posted: 7 August 2017) Just what it sounds like. I'm not sure what prompts people to Google for bad ideas.
   
7. A patron saint for fundraisers. (Posted: 6 December 2011) It's Saint Nicholas.
   
8. How to do a matching funds appeal [EXAMPLE]. (Posted: 18 December 2019) I got a good example of a matching funds appeal in the mail and dissected it for you.
   
9. Board member names on fundraising letterhead: why or why not?. (Posted: 23 October 2018) There's pretty much a right answer to this question.
   
10. What's wrong with the donor pyramid. (Posted: 13 February 2019) An alternative approach to your strategic framework for your fundraising program.
    

I follow a lot of nonprofit blogs. A lot. These are my favorite active, go-to sources that can help you be a better fundraiser:

• A Direct Solution
  
• Agents of Good
  
• The Agitator
  
• The Better Fundraising Blog
  
• Bloomerang Blog
  
• Clairification
  
• Culture for Hire
  
• Fired Up Fundraising
  
• Get Fully Funded Blog
  
• Good Works Blog
  
• Hands-on Fundraising
  
• Heroic Fundraising
  
• Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Guide
  
• Know Your Own Bone
  
• Moceanic Blog
  
• NextAfter
  
• Queer Ideas
  
• Veritus Group Passionate Giving blog
  

Which blogs am I missing? If you are the author or fan of a fundraising/marketing blog that's not on this list, share it in the comments below!

Lift Monday: A series about the art and science of "Lifts" in direct mail fundraising.

Usually, a direct mail lift piece is a piece of paper. That's the direct mail world.

But it doesn't have to be.

Real things from the real world that exist in three dimensions often make great lifts. Because they not only do what paper lifts do, but they make the envelope lumpy -- so it's more different from the other envelopes around it.

And that's important, because we know getting attention in the first place is the most challenging part of getting donations.

Here are some 3-D lifts I've done and seen done by others:

• Seed packets. This is often a winner, because it not only makes the envelope lumpy, it also makes sound when shaken. (True story: we sent out wheat drains in a transparent packet; in one of our sample packs, there was a live insect in the packet with the grains. We had no idea how many donors got a bug!)
  
• Coins. Usually glued to something in the pack, often showing through a window in the outer envelope. It can be used to dramatize a low-cost solution to a problem ("6¢ can save a child from blindness!") Can also be foreign coins if that works. (You will get more than the usual complaints from donors about coins; they annoy some donors!) Related, but not 3-D: foreign currency.
  
• Pen/pencil. Especially if you want the donor fill out a survey or otherwise write something.
  
• Lapel pins. Something nice and symbolic that the donor is likely to be proud to wear. Hint: except for a tiny number of organizations, your logo is not the thing!
  
• Water packets (plastic). Especially if it's appropriate for your organization to send Holy Water to donors.
  
• Magnets. This is sort of a hybrid lift -- flat like paper, but has extra weight. And surprisingly affordable. As with the lapel pin, don't just slap your logo on it. Ask yourself if your mother (or auntie or grandmother) would be happy to place this on her fridge. Images of flowers are nice, as are inspiring quotations or scripture.
  

When using 3-D lifts, there are two factors to watch out for:

1. Cost of the lift. It's possible to spend so much on a lift that even though it works to improve response, it erases all of its gains by what it cost. And sometimes the killer cost is what it costs to insert it in the envelope.
   
2. Increased postage. If the lift adds too much weight to the DM pack, you may be stuck with steeply increased postage. Or worse, it may become unmailable. Be sure to research with your printer and your local postal authority.
   

As with any fundraising, your job is to spend money to make money. So if you're writing to mid-value or major donors, you can include lifts that cost quite a lot -- and there's a good chance it will be worth every penny.

Read the other Lift Monday posts

How do you read your own fundraising letters?

You probably start at the beginning and read every word until you reach the end.

That's the way one reads when one is being paid to read, or when one is very interested in the contents.

That's not how most people read your fundraising letters. Sorry.

They skim. Glance. Bounce quickly through.

Are you creating messages that work for those readers, or are you writing for that tiny majority who read the way you do?

The smart way is to write Two Letters in One, says the Better Fundraising Blog.

Write a letter that works for both methodical readers and for skimmers.

But here's the weird thing: When you write the "skimmer" version, you've also written the "reader" version. Here's a guide to the skimmer version:

• The top-center or top-right corner of the letter contains a short blurb about the Need or about what the donor’s gift will do to help.
  
• The first three-ish paragraphs tend to summarize the whole letter. They share why the donor’s gift is needed, what the donor’s gift will accomplish, and ask the reader to send in a gift today.
  
• The middle section of the letter shares more details, perhaps shares a story that illustrates the need for the donor to take action.
  
• The last couple of paragraphs tend to repeat what was said in the first three paragraphs.
  

The only thing "wrong" with it for the e very-word readers is that it's repetitive. But that's not going to turn those readers away. Because even the most methodical of readers isn't paying attention to structure. The only people doing that are English teachers ... and you.

When you want to get your message across, write for skimmers.

That's the same as writing for everyone.

I have a theory that I can't prove: I think the manner of our thanking donors matters just as much to our revenue (maybe more) than the manner of our asking.

Thing is, it's easy to measure the success of our asking, and more complicated to measure the success of our thanking.

There is data that pretty much supports this, though you might not think so by the state of thanking from so many fundraisers:n sluggish, perfunctory, impersonal, irrelevant ...

Or nonexistent.

Want to up your thanking game? Check out this post from Clairification: Never Break These 3 Donor Acknowledgment Rules. It's a great start:

1. Send a letter within 48 hours. Quicker would be even better. Donors need to know you received their donation, you did with it what you said you would, it's making a difference, and it's appreciated. And if they have to wait weeks to find that out, their passion can grow cold. Speed matters in this fast-paced time when you can get same-day delivery from your favorite online shopping site.
   
2. Personalize your thank you with inserts, notes and handwriting. Find ways to make your thanking more real, personal, and attention-grabbing. Your donors get a lot of stuff in the mail, and the last thing you want is for them to not notice your thanking!
   
3. Pick up the phone. Just thank them. That call dramatically improves retention, because it shows them they matter. Ideally, you should call all donors every time they give, but if that's too much, your priorities should be first-time donors, and as many large-gift donors as possible.
   

Here are the 5 most-read Future Fundraising Now blog posts from the month of December:

1. How to give your donors a piece of the real world
   
2. How to master the fundraising lift note
   
3. Here's to ending the year on the right note
   
4. Is your fundraising getting enough complaints?
   
5. The more lifts, the better the fundraising results
   

Lift Monday: A series about the art and science of "Lifts" in direct mail fundraising.

Here's one of those odd truths that will do you some real good:

When it comes to direct mail lifts, one of the most dependably positive things you can use is a map.

Maps just work.

I really don't know why, just that they do.

It can be a map of anything: the world, a country, a region, state, even a village or neighborhood. And it needn't be a map in the strict sense. Here are some "maps" I've used in fundraising direct mail:

• A floor plan of a facility the donor could help pay for.
  
• A diagram of a piece of medical equipment.
  
• A diagram of a vegetable garden.
  
• A cross section of a human heart (for a health offer).
  
• A conceptual "map" outlining the options for someone fighting a disease.
  
• A map showing the daily wandering of an endangered reptile.
  

It seems a map clearly communicates "this is real."

Give it a shot.

Here's a charming map that shows a local community as seen by a child. It was a lift used in direct mail by ADRA (the Adventist Development and Relief Agency). I love this!

They worked so hard. Everyone was at their best, well-practiced and in sync. Everyone had gone well, really well, and now the big finish was upon them. Everyone was soaring...

And then, one tiny thing went ever-so-slightly wrong:

(Or view hear on YouTube.)

Here's my wish that this doesn't happen to your organization as 2021 comes to a close.

And, if it does, I hope you recover as well as this group did!

Happy New Year!

Here's a question, asked at the Better Fundraising Blog, might seem like an odd question for a nonprofit organization: Optimistic or Pessimistic?

But the answer is important:

If an organization is pessimistic, you think “we don’t want to overwhelm our donors” so you don’t send a second year-end appeal or follow-up emails. Because of this, all the people who didn’t see your first appeal, and all the people who might otherwise give you another gift, don’t get the chance.

But an optimistic organization my think, "Our donors know our work is important, and they love to give." So you'll make sure they hear from you and get every chance to donate.

Pessimism shoots you in the foot, over and over again.

Pessimism caused thousands of organizations to go silent during the pandemic. Donors had almost no way to support them during the crisis of a lifetime, while the optimistic donors raised record levels of funding.

Pessimism has led many fundraisers to decide for donors that they no longer want direct mail (or email, or long messages, or clear offers ... or any number of things that work) so they scrape by with low response and disconnected donors.

Pessimism makes many fundraisers over-think themselves into inaction, because they can so vividly imagine unlikely doomsday scenarios in their fundraising.

Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes you get whacked over the head seemingly from nowhere. It happens. But things also go right.

Choose optimism. You'll raise a lot more money. It's more fun, too.

Lift Monday: A series about the art and science of "Lifts" in direct mail fundraising.

The "classic" lift piece in direct mail is the lift note. First pioneered in commercial direct mail, it became common in fundraising direct mail because it works. Common experience is that a lift note can improve response between 5% and 25%.

The main purpose of a lift note is to increase the reader's connection and interest in the offer. It can do this a number of different ways:

• An endorsement from a third party or even someone else at your organization.
  
• Focus on something especially important about the offer.
  
• Further "evidence" about the offer, like an eyewitness of the situation.
  
• Overcoming potential objections.
  

Here are some of the common characteristics of fundraising lift notes:

1. It's from someone other than the letter signer. There are a lot of possibilities:

• It could be from someone else at your organization who is even closer to the situation than the letter signer.
  
• Someone helped by the organization talking about the need for help.
  
• A celebrity or expert backing up the claims of the main letter.
  
• A donor on why they donate.
  

2. It's shorter than the letter. Commonly just one side of one smaller piece of paper.

3. It looks different from the letter. Different stock, different (or no) letterhead. Different font (maybe even handwritten).

These are not rules. They're not even "best practices." They're "good practices" that have been shown to work.

Here's an example. It's in a direct mail piece sent by the Connecticut Forest & Park Association. (CFPA). The appeal is about preserving forest lands, and focuses on the blue-spotted salamander, an indicator species in the forest.

The lift note is from "Sal," a blue-spotted salamander, an indicator species for the woodland ecosystem:

Let me tell you about the most spectacular direct mail fundraising failure I've ever been associated with.

I think you'll enjoy it (because schadenfreude), but you'll also learn a thing or two. I'll try to tell it in a way that will disguise the identity of various guilty and innocent parties...

Once upon a time, a client of mine -- an international relief organization -- hired a Brilliant Consultant who owned some kind of secret sauce that was going to transform their fundraising program. This was long enough ago that this amazing solution had nothing to do with the Internet. It was all about doing direct mail in a new and better way.

The Brilliant Consultant (henceforth to be called "BC") was not an expert in either fundraising or direct response marketing. But that didn't matter, because he was an expert in Psychology.

BC took a look at our direct mail acquisition program, which performed in the above-average range. Response rates were around 1%, average gift approached $30, and costs were on the low side. The program worked, though it was a little unexciting.

BC proclaimed that 1% response was terrible and the average gift ridiculous -- because you're doing everything wrong!

Naturally, the BC had a solution:

• No specific offer. That "limited people's thinking" about the issue of poverty. The offer in our control was (yes, you guessed it) feeding hungry children.
  
• No problem, and no story. BC said the specificity we used in our fundraising was also "limiting" -- it emphasized the "otherness" of the people we were asking donors to help and thus reduced the sense of connection. Instead of a story about a child, there was an extended word-picture of an unnamed village somewhere in the developing world where things are going very well: kids are playing soccer, people are bicycling all over, the surrounding fields full of healthy veggies.
  
• Teaser. The outer envelope featured a pair of hands holding Planet Earth. In Whose hands might this non-religious organization depict having got the whole world? Well, BC wasn't specific about that, but said it would undercut the donors' sense that the world was a big mess ... that it was in "good hands." This would make them give. A lot.
  
• No reply device. BC proposed that the mailing should have no reply device, because that was so "downscale." Apparently one of the reasons we suffered a 1% response rate was the downscale direct mail look our direct mail had. We managed to talk them out of this one on statistical grounds -- with no reply device, there'd be no way to track the massive influx of donations the BC's version would unleash. BC grudgingly accepted that argument. This was the only argument we won with BC.
  

Well, you know how it is when you run a direct mail test. There's such a long lag between doing the work and getting back results, you often forget about the test. So when I saw the test results, there was one panel that looked like an error: it showed a response rate of 0.07% -- that is, seven donations for every 10,000 pieces sent.

The lowest direct-mail response rate I've encountered in my career.

And it wasn't an error. That weird-looking number was correct.

BC was not his normal voluble self after that. In fact, all we saw from him was a half-hearted memo that tried to blame the fiasco on the "outmoded direct mail system." By this time, nobody was listening.

Lessons?

• If someone's ideas sound like the fevered rantings of an opium fiend, they probably have the quality of the fevered rantings of an opium fiend, no matter how confident they are.
  
• The professionals (some of them, anyway) actually know what they're talking about. I have no doubt there are as-yet undiscovered ways to raise funds via direct mail. But we're more likely to find them by advancing beyond what we know ... not by trashing our knowledge and making stuff up.
  
• The bigger the promise a Brilliant Consultant makes, the more likely he's blowing smoke.
  
• Even the stupidest situation can eventually become a story you can tell.
  

(This post first appeared on February 24, 2017.)

Book Review: Demand-Side Sales 101: Stop Selling and Help Your Customers Make Progressby Bob Moesta

Remember "supply-side economics"?

There's also "supply-side sales."

And "demand-side sales."

The difference: supply-side sales is an approach that focuses on the thing being sold -- its features, benefits, and all-around awesomeness. Demand-side sales focuses on the customer -- what she needs, the problem she hopes to solve.

You're probably thinking two things right now. Let me guess:

1. "Supply-side sales sounds like most of the sales pitches I've ever heard."
   
2. "That sounds like fundraising!"
   

If that's what you're thinking, I agree with you. And that's why I appreciate this book. While it's all about selling products and services, the ideas translate well to fundraising, starting with the insight that people buy things because they have "Jobs to Be Done,” (JTBD): they don’t buy products, they hire them to make progress in their life.

Which is the point of Demand-Side Sales 101: Salespeople should stop blabbing about how superb their products are and start learning what their products can do for their customers, then make that the center of your pitch:

... great salespeople don’t sell; they help. They listen, understand what you want to achieve, and help you achieve it.

Same for fundraising, but with an important twist: when you donate, you don't take ownership of anything. Other than some tax advantages that few people need and even few care much about, the rewards are completely psychic.

But those psychic rewards are still the reason people donate -- it's still "progress" that people are seeking. And this is why the most effective fundraising is Demand-Side Fundraising.

This book can help, even though it's all about commercial marketing. Example: Here are three basic principles of sales from the book, which I've "edited" to make about fundraising:

1. People [give] for their own reasons. It’s more about progress than about your [organization or programs]. Your job as a [fundraiser] is to help people make progress on their terms; it’s about more than [fundraising] and making the “almighty dollar.” Approaching [fundraising] from this mindset will set you apart as a great [fundraiser].”
   
2. Nothing is random; everything is caused. Understanding the causal mechanisms of why people do what they do, down to the action level, is critical. It will help you see patterns and [raise funds] better while helping people make progress faster.”
   
3. The struggle creates demand. The struggling moment is the seed for all [giving]. Where do people struggle? Helping people make progress is embedded in finding these struggling moments. So, find the struggling moment!”
   

Here's more. "The Three Myths to Dispel," also edited for fundraisers:

1. Supply creates demand; build it and they will [donate to] it. No, the product does not create demand. People want to be their definition of best, not yours. It’s about fitting your [cause] into their life by understanding the progress they are trying to make.
   
2. [Donations] are random.... This is the idea that you just need to find people and they will [give]. [Fundraising] is not about finding people; it’s about creating demand. Many [fundraisers] operate under the probability framework: “If I get my [cause] in front of enough people eventually it will [raise funds]."
   
3. [Fundraising] is about convincing people, and you can convince anyone to do anything. [Fundraisers] don’t convince people to [give], people convince themselves. They [give] for their own reasons. You need understand them first, and then your [cause] and how it fits into their lives.
   

Business and sales theory can really give great insights to fundraisers. That's why I recommend you read this book.

Available at Powell's Books (an excellent independent bookseller)

Lift Monday: A series about the art and science of "Lifts" in direct mail fundraising.

In direct mail, longer letters work better. It's not 100% -- but it's close. As close to a guarantee as you'll find in direct response.

It may be hard to believe. In fact, it's so hard to believe, I talk to people frequently who are absolutely the "longer is better" rule is some kind of scam. Even though every expert you ask about it will confirm the truth of it.

I bring it up because there's a similar truth that is also hard to believe. It's this:

Adding extra things to a fundraising direct mail pack improves response. And the more you add, the better the improvement.

Weird, yes. But dependable.

The highest number of lifts in a pack I helped create was 11:

• A sheet of personalized address labels.
  
• A 6-page booklet showing photos and descriptions of the offer.
  
• A small 12-month wall calendar (a separate page for each month).
  
• A bookmark (on cardstock).
  
• A bumpersticker.
  
• 2 holiday greeting cards.
  
• 2 envelopes for the greeting cards.
  
• 2 Christmas Tree ornaments (on cardstock)
  

This was a donor acquisition mailing. And it worked wonders for several years.

In theory, you could keep adding lifts all day, and each one would boost response. There's just one limit to that: Each lift adds cost to the pack, and at some point, you might price the project out of reach of success -- great response, but at too high a cost.

I'd think twice (or more) about using this many lifts in most US direct mail campaigns. But I would consider at least some of them.

You should too.

Any time you go to the effort of creating a direct mail fundraising piece, you should think about adding at least one lift piece to it.

Your non-fundraising colleagues and your board members will likely hate it when you add lifts. They'll say it contributes to the junk-mail look of your direct mail.

Maybe it does. But it works.

Your donors don't give a rip about that "direct mail look." They care about being able to make the world a better place.

And lifts can help them see that more clearly.

On coming Lift Mondays, we'll look more specifically about specific lift types and strategies.

The most impactful element of any direct mail project is the teaser — what you put on the outer envelope.

We’ll share what works, what never works, and the surprising “most likely to succeed” approach.

We’ll also discuss email subject lines — a closely related topic with some strong similarities to direct mail teasers.

From the archives of the now-defunct podcast Fundraising Is Beautiful. This episode first aired on March 29, 2017. Listen here:

(If you don't see the audio player below, click here to listen.)

Your donors' email inboxes are crowded. You need every possible advantage to get their attention and action. Here are some tactics you can put to work from the Content Marketing Institute, at Fresh Ideas and Expert Advice for Writing Email That Gets Opened and Read:

1. [Use brackets] in the subject line. Brackets have been shown to increase email open rates by 31%. Go figure.
   
2. Keep comparison images close together. Before and after photos are highly compelling. If you use them, make sure they are close together.
   
3. Don’t spell numbers. 6, not six.
   
4. Say "because." This word helps prompt readers to action.
   
5. Capitalize without shouting. Emphasize a word here and there by putting it in all capitals.
   
6. Go negative. Loss avoidance is usually more compelling than opportunity.
   
7. Rhyme at the right time. Don't write entirely in poetry. Just use rhyming words in key places.
   
8. Proofread. Typos are easy to miss, but they can cause all kinds of problems.
   
9. Ask one question first and always. The question: Does this content serve our readers?
   
10. Give it a voice (and a face). Make it look and read like it's from a real and specific person. Not an institution.
    
11. Enable a two-way conversation. Make sure recipients can connect with you by hitting reply. Ask questions and invite response.