DonorCentric Newsletters

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Donor-Centric Newsletters

• Creating Loyal Donors and Raising Funds for Your
  Organization

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Overview

• Functions of a Donor-centric Direct Mail
  Newsletter
• Developing Strategies
• Case Study
• Functions of an e-Newsletter
• Key Take-aways

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What is the Function of a Donor-Centric
Newsletter?

• Thank donors for their loyalty
• Report back- Where funds are being allocated to
• Educate- through stories, program information,
  new findings
• Let the donor feel appreciated for their
  donations

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What is the Function of a Donor-Centric
Newsletter?

• Additional revenue source
• Offer other ways to help your ministry
• Planned giving
• Sustainer programs
• Volunteering
• Prayer

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How Do You Develop a Donor-centric Newsletter?

• Newsletter name should be tied to mission
• Focus on the donor, not the organization
• Have one central theme per newsletter
• Make newsletter easily scannable
• Photos, headers, sub-heads, info graphics, stats

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How Do You Develop a Donor-centric Newsletter?

• Determine packaging components (envelope carrier,
  intro letter, remit, newsletter, reply envelope,
  etc.)
• Include a strong fundraising offer
• Establish mail frequency between newsletters and
  direct mail appeals

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Donors- Interested in People not Process

Please help now so we can deliver these trucks to
local food banks. Focus on our work.
Please help now so Carlos and his family will no
longer go hungry. Focus on impact of our work.
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Copy- General vs Specific
Every 5 you send will make it possible to
provide one Bible . . . Focus on impact of our
work.
Your gift will help sustain our ministry efforts
in Chicago. Focus on our work.
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Photos- Images that Work
The eyes are the window to the soul People look
at children before adults.
Hard to see these are people.
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Effective Writing for Newsletters

• Put yourself in the donors place
• Write about the impact the donor makes
• Use the active voice

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Effective Writing for Newsletters

• Keep sentences and paragraphs short
• Underline and bold for emphasis- mostly in intro
  letter
• Use pull quotes to emphasize a major point of
  your stories

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Effective Writing for Newsletters

• Start a new sentence for each new idea
• Be specific- Use illustrations, cases, and
  examples
• Make sure you have white space

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Newsletter Case Study

• Pacific Legal Foundation
• Founded in 1973
• Legal organization that protects individual
  liberties
• Eminent domain, property rights, limited
  government
• Represent Americans in court at no fee
• Have won precedent setting cases in the Supreme
  Court
• Serves as a watchdog to uphold the law

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Newsletter Case Study- Before

• Name
• Multiple audiences and themes
• Org. focused
• Photos of employees, not clients
• Too long, not easily scannable
• Text heavy

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Newsletter Case Study- Before

• Written like a periodical
• Simple color
• Expensive paper, poor package design
• Soft ask
• No Net Income

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Newsletter Case Study- After

• Mission oriented name
• Donor Focused
• 8 Pages
• Easily scannable, less copy
• Client photos

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Newsletter Case Study- After

• New Package Components
• Engaging color
• Central Theme

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Newsletter Case Study- After

• Offer based on central theme
• Planned Giving
• Remit

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Results

• Original newsletter did not generate net
  revenue,
  was expensive
• Generated over 250,000 net revenue in the first
  year
• Increase response rate by 558
• Performing better than donor appeals

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Results

• The new Rescuing Liberty newsletter has
  exceeded all our expectations at PLF. Not only
  are we raising money from something that
  previously lost money, we are also building
  relationships with donors who have had nothing
  but positive comments. We believe the long-term
  impact of this newsletter will be just as
  positive as the short-term results.
• Robin L. Rivett, Esq.
• President

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e-Newsletters

• Communication tool
• Attract new donors from website
• Viral

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e-Newsletters

• Email to existing email list
• Tool to get online constituents to sign up for
  email
• Use free language on organic searches
• First step in capturing e-mail addresses online
• Advertise on homepage

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Free Language for Organic Searches
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Capturing Email Address
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e-Newsletter Components

• Email with links all stories? story pages? links
  to donation page
• Homepage Ad? landing page with links to all
  stories ? story pages ? links to donation page

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Advertise e-Newsletter on Homepage
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Landing Page
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Story Links
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e-Newsletter Donts

• Dont use post your e-newsletter as a PDF
• Dont reinvent the wheel
• Dont force online constituents to give you too
  much information in order to receive
  e-communication

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e-Newsletter Dos

• Do include a donation button on each page
• Do allow easy navigation between stories
• Do include a forward to a friend button

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Key Takeaways

• Know your audience- what do they want to hear
  more about?
• Its all about the donor!
• Thank the donor often

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Key Takeaways

• Create a mission focused name
• Have a central theme throughout
• Test (copy, package components, art, themes, of
  pages, mail frequency)

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Key Takeaways

• Make newsletters easy to scan
• Create an opportunity to give a gift now
• Provide other opportunities to get involved
  (volunteer, planned giving, etc.)

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Key Takeaways

• e-newsletters are communication tools
• Can be used to acquire new donors online
• Can be used as a viral component

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Resources

• Christian Leadership Alliance
• Fundraising Success Magazine
• AFP- American Fundraising Professionals
• Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Direct Marketing Association Non-Profit
  Federation

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• Questions?