Direct mail still rules in fundraising -- here's why

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23 May 2016

Direct mail still rules in fundraising -- here's why

Despite fast growth several years in a row, online fundraising has not yet reached 10% of total fundraising dollars.

Here are a few reasons why from the Washington Intelligence Bureau blog, at Why Snail Mail Works Best:

Reliability. Mail has a much higher chance of making it into the donor's hands than an email.
Emotional. The same material on paper has more emotional impact than it would online.
Tactile Rewards. Touch is important. Donors can't touch email.
Increased Personalization. Digital communication has an advantage in this area. But paper is catching up with digital printing.

If you're serious about fundraising, you need to be serious about direct mail. It's going to be a long time before digital media overtake it.

Posted by Jeff Brooks on 23 May 2016 at 07:25 | Permalink

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The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It's not about any technology, medium, or technique. It's about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It's already here. More.

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Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. More.

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