More Americans Are Responding to Direct-Mail Appeals, Survey Finds

Americans are increasingly responding to direct-mail solicitations from charities with gifts or other

expressions of interest, according to a new survey. Nearly 60 percent of people who read such mailings said they had made some type of response in the preceding 30 days, up from 39 percent in 2002.

Recipients of direct mail respond in an array of ways: Among those who had responded to a charity mailing in the preceding month, 32 percent replied through the mail, up from 23 percent in 2002.

Twenty percent visited the sender’s Web site, up from 9 percent. Fourteen percent visited the nonprofit organization’s nearest location in person, up from 6 percent, and 12 percent called a toll-free number provided in the mailing, an increase of five percentage points.

The annual survey, now in its fourth year, was conducted by Marshall Marketing and Communications in Pittsburgh and commissioned by Vertis, a Baltimore advertising and direct-marketing company. The findings are based on interviews with 2,000 adults, 18 and older, conducted in August and September.

The survey — which modifies some questions from one year to the next — examines Americans’ response to direct-marketing techniques and other solicitation methods, as well as their overall charitable giving.

Among other key findings of the survey:

• Eighty-five percent of those surveyed said that they had made a contribution to charity in the past 12 months, about the same percentage that the survey has found every year except for 2002, when it dipped to 77 percent in the faltering economy.
• Americans were most likely to contribute to health groups (55 percent), food and hunger groups (42 percent), children’s charities and community-service organizations like United Ways (39 percent each), charities that work with the homeless or operate shelters (37 percent), safety and disaster-relief groups (35 percent), and religious organizations (31 percent). Least popular were causes that dealt with political issues (16 percent) and social-services charities (12 percent). Those findings were consistent with the surveys conducted in previous years.
• In determining which charities to support, 39 percent of donors who gave to one or more charities in the preceding 12 months said that their belief in the organization’s cause was a key motivating factor, while 10 percent said that the amount of their contribution that goes to a charitable cause was important. Less important were the ability to give to a charity online (1 percent), their employer’s involvement with a charity (2 percent), and requests from fund raisers (5 percent).
• The charity appeals that drew the biggest share of respondents included invitations to fund-raising events (50 percent), a request from a church (47 percent), direct mail (46 percent), and solicitations from friends or relatives (43 percent). Among the least-effective solicitation techniques: infomercials (3 percent), e-mail (7 percent), telemarketing (10 percent), and telethons (14 percent).
• People who said they read direct mail were asked to indicate one or more features of a mail solicitation that would persuade them to open it. The timing of the piece and need for the product or service it promoted was the most important feature — selected by 69 percent of Americans, followed by the look of the mailing (63 percent), the recipient’s name printed on the envelope (59 percent), and a special offer or discount (51 percent).

Scott Marden, director of marketing research at Vertis, said one of the key findings of the survey was the growing interest of young people in making gifts in response to direct mail.

Last year, the average age of direct-mail donors was 43.7. Donors age 18 to 28 accounted for nearly 20 percent of respondents to charity mailings in the most recent survey, up from 12 percent in 2002. Mr. Marden said he believed the increase was a sign that many charities have been successful in redesigning appeals to attract younger people and finding new ways to tailor solicitations to match recipients’ interests.

Mr. Marden said the growing influence of women as donors was also notable, and that men were increasingly less likely to give to charity.

Since 2001 the number of men who report giving $250 or more to charity in the preceding 12 months declined by 10 percentage points, to 28 percent.

That does not mean men are ignoring direct-marketing efforts from charities, however. Men who are 50 to 64 are among the most avid readers of direct mail: 56 percent said that they had read a direct-mail appeal in the previous week, up from 49 percent in 2002.

Another change is evident among people age 60 to 75. Thirty-one percent of people in that age group said they contributed $250 or more to charity in the preceding 12 months, an increase from the 25 percent who did so in 2003.

For a free summary of “Vertis Customer Focus 2005: Direct Marketing for the Nonprofit Sector,” contact Maria Amor, Assistant Account Executive, Formula PR, 1215 Cushman Avenue, Second Floor, San Diego, Calif. 92110; (619) 234-0345; amor@formulapr.com.

WHO RESPONDS TO NONPROFIT DIRECT MAIL