Many organizations object to using incentives in fundraising (freemiums; things like address labels) because they're "tacky" or "lowbrow" or "out of date."
Those are subjective labels that should never guide your thinking. If your reason for not using incentives is like that, it's a symptom that you're trapped in your own mind, not in donors' minds.
Because incentives can work. Not always or for everyone -- but it's a tactic everyone should at least consider.
Here's a breath of common sense from the Hilborn blog, at What's the problem with incentive led fundraising?
Using incentives should be seen as door openers. Conversation starters. Icebreakers. They don't define your fundraising. They simply help it.
You may think they're utterly embarrassing. You may believe you'd never donate to any organization that sent them to you. You may have spoken a vow that you'd never be responsible for creating more address labels.
Donors -- all of them except for a handful of articulate complainers -- see things differently.
Incentives might work for you. It's crazy and irresponsible to rule them out unless you specifically know they don't work for you.
More on this topic: Should you consider address labels in your fundraising?
