A “Non-Gala” Direct Mailing Gets a Big Response From Mid-Level Donors

After a direct-mail appeal to mid-level donors stopped performing well, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston needed a new approach, something novel that would get donors to open the envelope and give again.

So, in April 2013, fundraisers decided on a gala. Except, not really.

The new mailing was an invitation to a “non-gala.” It went out at a time when many of the hospital’s supporters were receiving invitations to real events from other charities.

But for this bash, there was no need to rent a tuxedo, buy a new gown, or visit the hairdresser. Instead, the appeal invited donors to dress up a set of paper dolls and send them back with a donation. The paper dolls would go to children in the hospital, along with their meals.

“All that money you save? Send it to us, feel good, and send these paper dolls to us for children to play with,” says Linda Sode, senior vice president of Infogroup, the marketing firm that worked on the mailing with the hospital.

This kind of “interactive” element had worked in the past for the hospital and Infogroup, Ms. Sode says. The organizations had carried out similar direct-mail campaigns with paper-and-sticker aquariums, which were also passed back to children at the hospital. The elements were designed to be an incentive for donors to send back the envelopes.

And for mid-level donors — the target of this campaign — it worked.

The April 2013 mailing went to 60,020 past donors, generating a response rate of 13 percent and raising a total of $168,257 in revenue. Most of that money — $137,819 — came from the subset of 23,825 donors who had given $50 or more in the previous 24 months.

Of these donors, the 5,100 recipients who had given more than $100 in the previous 12 months responded at a rate of slightly more than 14 percent, and with a much higher average gift (about $91, compared with an overall average of about $36). As a result, that group of donors — less than 9 percent of all recipients — accounted for more than $67,000 of the appeal’s total revenue. The only difference in their mailing was a first-class stamp on the envelope.

By the Numbers

Total revenue: $168,257 from 60,020 donors, including $137,819 from more than 23,000 donors who gave $50 or more in the 24 months before the mailing

Response rate: 13 percent overall, and 14 percent for donors who gave more than $100 in the 12 months before the mailing

Average gift: $35.88 overall, but donors who gave more than $100 in the 12 months before the mailing gave an average of $91.36

Cost per 1,000 in the mail: $742

Number mailed: 60,020

Cost to raise $1: $0.16

Award: Best Mid-level Renewal Package from the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association in 2014