October 8, 1998 | Read Time: 1 minute
Like many charities, New York City’s Calvary Hospital seeks to avoid annoying its direct-mail donors by offering to send them just one solicitation a year.
But the Bronx facility for terminally ill cancer patients recently decided to bend the policy, after realizing that more than 900 people who requested to be solicited once a year had not responded to a mailing in November 1997.
Instead of waiting another year to contact the donors again, the hospital decided to send them a special letter, at the suggestion of Whittier & Associates, a direct-mail consulting company in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
The letter was mailed in March to 948 people — about 15 per cent of the hospital’s donors.
“You have shown your generosity in the past, and we are deeply grateful,” read the letter, which was signed by the hospital’s chief executive.
“I know that you have requested we ask you once a year for a gift, but we did not hear from you in 1997. I’m hoping we can count on your help now.”
It was a “very gentle ask,” says Christine Stogel, the hospital’s associate director of development. “We didn’t want to give them a huge nudge.”
The letter brought in gifts from 3.5 per cent of recipients; one person wrote a check for $10,000. The donations added nearly 9 per cent to the total raised from Calvary’s other March mailings.
Says Ms. Stogel: “I was elated, because it was essentially revenue that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Those individuals would not have been solicited again for another full year, and that vastly decreases their chances of giving to the next year-end appeal.”
For more information, contact Christine Stogel, Associate Director of Development, Calvary Hospital, 1740 Eastchester Road, Bronx, N.Y. 10461; (718) 518-2080.
