How a Colorful Direct-Mail Appeal Paid Off for One Nonprofit—in June

February 28, 2015 | Read Time: 2 minutes

The American Farmland Trust, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit working on farmland preservation and agriculture issues, has a clear message in one of its fundraising campaigns: “No farms, no food.”

But that message wasn’t resonating with direct-mail donors in the early summer, a time when you would expect them to start thinking about farm stands and fresh tomatoes.

So the group, working with direct-mail firm Eidolon Communications, set out to rework its early-summer mailing to existing donors in 2013.

The result was an appeal designed to make donors’ mouths water.

The mailer, slightly larger than a normal No. 10 envelope, displays a colorful grouping of fruits and vegetables. It unfolds into a circle, with a clock printed over a photo of a scenic farm with a message that reads, “America has been losing more than an acre of precious farmland every minute.”

The package also includes a vibrant map of farmland loss, along with the fundraising letter and donation card. The first thing donors see at the top of the letter is the bold “No Farms, No Food” message.

“We all loved the package because of the essence of it and how it conveyed so dramatically the mission of the organization,” says John Graves, chief executive of Eidolon.

Donors liked it, too. The 5.42 percent response rate was the organization’s best of the year. The appeal, sent only to donors who gave between $15 and roughly $1,000 in the two to three previous years, generated an average gift of nearly $43.

The group tested the package for donor acquisition, too, but found it worked much better for renewals, says Gerri Zimbardi, direct of client services at Eidolon: “This reminded us that current donors like to have a fun package, too.”