- August 22, 2015
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Charity Proves That Direct Mail Message Testing Pays Off
How can a non-profit charity afford to send a direct mail letter promising donors that if they give once, they’ll never be asked for money again?
This unorthodox “donate to opt out” approach actually resulted in a 46% increase in fundraising for Smile Train.
Creative Brainstorming
Smile Train is a non-profit that donates surgeries to children born with cleft palate and also trains doctors to treat them.
Back in 2008, staff came up with the “donate to opt out” idea during a brainstorming session. Smile Train’s chief marketing officer, Brian Dearth, explained the inspiration in The Chronicle of Philanthropy: “We provide free surgery to cure children of cleft palate that is permanent. So this is a way for us to convey that permanence. We provide donors with a similar opportunity to make a permanent change and be done with it.”
Smile used traditional direct mail with this message on the outer envelope: “Make one gift now and we’ll never ask for another donation again.”
Donors who responded got a reply slip with which they could tell the charity (a) they never want to be asked for a donation again, (b) they want to receive limited communications from Smile Train, or (c) they would like regular updates.
Sampling the Audience
Before sending the new letter to all 800,000 contacts, Smile Train tested the message on a smaller sample audience of 150,000. Half of this test group would get the “once-and-done” letter.
If nothing else, those choosing to opt-out would help Smile Train to practice good list hygiene.
Expanding Success
It turned out that most donors didn’t want to stop hearing from Smile Train.
Those receiving the standard letter donated $13,234. But donors who received the “once-and-done” letter gave $22,728 — 39% of those said they never wanted to be contacted again.
After the successful test, Smile Train expanded the campaign to the full mailing list. Hubspot reported that “the once-and-done group donated $260,783, while the standard letter group donated $178,609.”
Keeping the Promise
Smile Train has remained true to its promise: anyone who donates and opts out is removed from the appeal list (though the donor still receives a thank you letter with a receipt and photo of a child helped by Smile Train).
You don’t have to be a non-profit to learn from the Smile Train experiment. The next time someone at your organization suggests a bold or unusual marketing idea, put it to the test before ruling it out.
For more tips on effective direct mail or marketing for non-profits, read: “How Non-Profits (And Everyone) Can Use Data Segmentation” and “Real-Time Marketing Raises Nonprofit’s Revenue”.
