Makes you think:
To some people, the idea of incentivising the donor with the chance of a cash prize may seem ‘tacky’ and a bit ‘low brow’. However, from the first church raffle onwards, incentive fundraising has a long and good track record. Now, as fundraisers seek new sources of funds as old ones become more competitive, its time for a new look at giving another incentive to donors. Here’s how some of the most productive schemes work:
Prize draws
Unlike lotteries and raffles, free-to-enter direct mail prize draws are not surrounded by regulation and red tape. The basic proposition is ‘send in your entry ticket, which is free of charge, and your name will go into the hat with a chance of winning a prize. While sending in your entry, would you consider a voluntary donation?’ This type of prize draw obviously succeeds or fails according to the level of overall response versus the proportion that sends a donation with their entry. When done by firms with expertise in this field, results are usually significantly better than conventional direct mail. Prizes can be cash or specific goods. Even quite modest cash prizes can work surprisingly well.
Lotteries
Lotteries involve selling tickets at a disclosed price per ticket. Lotteries are strictly regulated and require registration under one of the schemes set out in the Gambling Act 2006. Lotteries seem to work best either online or sold personally, such as by selling them door-to-door. A good formula is to sell a regular entry into a weekly or monthly lottery, paid for by direct debit or standing order. Hospices seem to do very well with their lottery schemes and there are several commercial companies who specialise in this field.
Raffles
Raffles are also regulated, largely by the local authority. There are strict rules governing the proportion of entry money that can go to costs of promoting the raffle and to raffle prizes. For this reason, many raffle operators seek donated prizes. Direct mailed books of raffle tickets, say 2 books of 5 tickets at a price of £1 per ticket have a good track record for gaining response and building up a ‘raffle-friendly’ list.
Some pundits will say that incentivised donors will only ever respond to continuing incentives, but at CSDM we have found this not to be the case. Used carefully and with the right audience, incentivised giving can be a very effective way of making a first transaction with a donor that can lead to long term, non-incentivised support.
Small changes – big difference – 5 small tips that can really boost direct mail appeal response
- Use Royal Mail’s Customer Barcode (CBC) service. A barcode underneath the address and showing through a window envelope makes the letter look more “official” and gets a higher attention rate.
- Give a closing date for the appeal. Time limits are why capital campaigns work so well.
- Get an appeal signatory who is a respected figure, such as a doctor, professor etc., (probably not a politician right now though!). Credible signatories make a worthwhile difference.
- Make the first sentence of your letter a very short one. It helps readers start reading.
- Use a ‘demotic’ style of writing – a familiar, easy tone, rather than a formal one.
None of these measures will cost you a penny more, but are guaranteed to improve results.
Content supplied by Chris Stoddard.