Annual Doesn't Mean Annually in Direct Mail Fundraising Campaigns

One of your greatest obstacles in operating a successful annual fund is thinking of it as an annual fund.

The annual fund is so named because it runs for 12 months. Not because you are supposed to solicit gifts only once a year. In direct mail fundraising, the most important gift is not the first, but the second. The majority of people who respond to a direct mail appeal give once and never again. Your goal is to convert these one-time donors into repeat donors.

And you can't do that if you wait 12 months before asking a one-time donor to give again. If you send just one direct mail appeal a year, you don't have an annual fund. You have an expense fund. All you are going to do is lose money.

One direct mail fundraiser I know says his greatest challenge is persuading management to abandon what he calls the "annual fund" mentality. He sees it as the greatest obstacle to acquiring the second gift. I agree.

If you only ask for a gift once a year, or annually, you will likely see your donors fall away at rates of 60 percent and higher.

You need to solicit direct mail gifts more than once a year for a number of vital reasons:

1. You can't remember what you were doing on this day 12 months ago, and neither can your donors. The way to stay in their memory is to stay in their mailbox.

2. Donors give for many reasons (altruism, compassion, guilt), but the main reason is that someone asked them for a gift.

3. Friends stay in touch. Your goal in direct mail fundraising is not to raise a dollar but to retain a donor. You are after their friendship first, then their finances. And you can't expect to raise money from people that only hear from you once a year.

At my direct mail fundraising agency, we counsel our clients to mail four appeals a year at a minimum, plus four newsletters, for a total of eight mailings at the least. Any healthy annual giving program requires at least eight mailings.