Online Appeals Can’t Match Direct Mail

To the Editor:

Your special “online giving issue” is great. It benchmarks where the industry is at this point in time. It highlights innovations worth studying for adoption. It is thorough and deeply researched.

And then there’s that one itsy-bitsy item on Page 9, a pull quote that summarizes a key point in the cover story. The pull quote reads: “Even groups that aren’t attracting $100,000 gifts online say they are bringing in more online than from direct mail.”

In other words, “Online giving has now outclassed direct mail as a way of raising money.”

Which isn’t remotely true, accurate, professional, knowledgeable, or even probably patriotic.

Direct mail, by far, outclasses every other measurable method for acquiring new donors and raising money in the U.S.

The actual article (not the pull quote) reports that some charities are seeing seriously large amounts given online, when they never saw gifts of that size (a gift of, say, $100,000) in their direct-mail reply envelopes.

In my view, the giving of big gifts online is a minor issue of convenience, not a major trend. Online giving is not divorced from direct mail in a multichannel world, for one thing.

Research shows that often donors give online precisely because a direct-mail appeal prompted them.

This pull quote suggests that fundraising has reached a pivotal moment and that wise nonprofits would do well to start the migration away from direct mail.

No, they shouldn’t, unless they’re willing to walk away from their most effective acquisition and relationship methods.

Tom Ahern
Ahern Donor Communications
Foster, R.I.

Editor’s note: As we noted in our correction box on page 3 of our print edition, Mr. Ahern is correct. The pull quote with the article did not accurately convey what the reporter wrote.