I’m a bit of a numbers nerd – and in all my fundraising roles I end up championing the power of data. With a few strategic data choices and language changes, I hope to help you better appeal to your donors and simplify your reporting in direct mail.

Simplify Donor Data

How many segments do you have in your direct mail? Do you really need to spend so much time and energy dividing up your donors? When it comes to a smart segmentation plan my recommendation is almost always less is more.

The first question to ask yourself is why you want the donors in different groupings. If the answer is that it’s always been done this way, it’s time to dig a little deeper. Yes, year-over-year consistency is important for simplifying data analysis but taking the hit now to make a strategic change will save you in the future.

So, what are acceptable reasons for a separate segment?

• You want to speak to a person differently based on a group identity and how they interact with your organization. Think current versus monthly or mid-level donors. More on this in a minute.
• At a glance, simplified reporting. If a group is likely to have a significantly different response rate or average gift amount, you’ll want to adjust your projections accordingly and monitor their performance separately.

Consider those groupings that you often break out by year. Do you have a segment for donors who gave their last gift this year (often called Current) and another for donors who give last year (this group might be referred to as Active)? Do you have a good reason for this division? Generally, these donors give and respond around the same rate, so why not combine them.

A similar pattern is used by many organizations with their lapsed donors. Do you have a Lapsed 1, Lapsed 2, Lapsed 3 and so forth, each referring to how many years since the donors last gift? Depending on how far back you mail these segments, response rate does tend to fall off eventually. I recommend looking into trends of these groupings from prior years and cutting down to a Lapsed (usually Lapsed 1-2 or 1-3) and Long Lapsed segment (often Lapsed 3+ or 4+).

The Importance of Thoughtful Copy

Thankfully, most charities use some level of variable copy in their direct mail. The bare minimum would be customizing the salutation so the letter reads “Dear <Donor Name>, rather than a generic title such as “friend” or “neighbour.” First make sure you’ve got that taken care of, then you can consider making some collective language edits based on the donor data segment.

When I first started writing in direct mail my understanding of variable copy read something like this:

• Current donors – “Your support…”
• Monthly donors – “Your monthly support…”
• Mid-level donors – “Your generous support…”
• Lapsed donors – “Your past support…”

Now – 7 years into my career – I know there’s much more powerful language that can be incorporated into a direct mail letter that will appeal to your donor’s identity and how they relate to your cause.

• Current donors – this segment is usually your base audience. Try incorporating words like “thoughtful,” “caring” and “dedicated.”
• Monthly donors – monthly donors are so important to organizations for sustainability. They are going to relate to being “loyal” and “committed.” If you’re making an ask for a one-time gift, consider referring to it as “special” to acknowledge that they are going above and beyond.
• Mid-level donors – I’m not suggesting you can’t refer to these donors based on their “generosity,” but in addition, it might be nice to recognize their “leadership.” Sometimes it may be appropriate to speak of their “philanthropy” although not everyone knows what this means, perhaps “transformative giving” might be a better word choice.
• Lapsed donors – Saying “your past support” is not as influential as you think it is. As a donor, unless I made a gift on the same day I’m reading this letter – all of my giving was in the past. It’s more likely the donor doesn’t remember that a few years have gone by since their last gift, so you should use this copy to make that clear. Tell the donor they have been missed and that you haven’t heard from them in awhile. Ask if they’ll “renew” their support/commitment/giving today.

Despite my earlier case for less segments, there are two other data segments I like to separate. These donors are likely not being missed in your mailings; they just happen to fall into one of the regular categories above during segmenting. If you want to try grouping them to apply the messaging I suggest below, you’ll need to give them a higher priority during your data pull.

• New donors – Second gift conversion rate is an important metric in fundraising, so keeping these donors in their own category can help you more easily analyze their behaviour. These donors should have their first and only gift on file from a recent time frame (your organization can define if that lasts for just this year or last year too) as soon as a second gift is made these donors would join your Current segment – no matter if their second gift happens in 3 months or a year. From a copy perspective, I like to take the opportunity to welcome them into your donor community and as a “partner” to your cause, you should also ensure you clearly speak to your mission as they may not be fully familiar with what you do.
• Once per Year donors – Many people request that charities only contact them based on specific preferences. Some organizations chose a special mailing to include these donors in (usually at the beginning or end of the year) while others use coding to allow the donor to choose the time of year they prefer. Using variable copy, you can add additional urgency to these donors around your ask. Remind the donor it’s time to make their “annual gift” and that this will be the only letter you send them this year because of their request.

Once you’ve started to get the hang of it, consider finding identity language specific to your organization’s donors and incorporating it into your writing. You can do this by asking them to describe themselves or why they give in a survey. Before you start putting one together, read our blog Unlocking the Power of Donor Surveys for more tips on this powerful tool.

Finally, go beyond the group and get personal, for more inspiration on how to individual variable copy read our blog: 3 Data Gems to Better Personalize Your Donor Asks