Direct Mail Fundraising: More Pictures, More Money?

Let's look at this scenario: Your charity is planning another direct-mail fundraising campaign and you have been put in charge of the project. To get the attention of potential donors, you intend to add a full-color picture on the envelope.

Not so fast, according to a recent study on fundraising letters that was published in the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing.

The researchers sent nearly 90,000 letters to prior donors of a religious charity in the Netherlands and found that mailings with a color picture on the envelope resulted in a lower response rate and smaller donations. They note, "We interpret this finding from donor aversion against high fundraising costs."

What do the researchers suggest? Play it safe by starting with a simple package. If you are still considering the option of attractively designed envelopes, try it out with a small random sample and see how it goes.

Here is the full citation to the article:
Bekkers, Rene and Olaf Crutzen. "Just Keep It Simple: A Field Experiment on Fundraising Letters." International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing. vol. 12 (November 2007): p. 371-8.

Search our Catalog of Nonprofit Literature to find more articles from this journal, or to look for other readings on direct-mail fundraising.