It’s Time to Tailor Campaign Brochures

To the Editor:

Sue Washburn, one of the fund-raising consultants quoted in Marilyn Dickey’s July 29 article “Putting It All Together,” makes a point I have been promulgating for years, often to uncomfortable if not downright resistant clients: The value of glossy campaign brochures is doubtful.

Prior to a session I led a couple of years ago at an event sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, I surveyed 35 vice-presidents of advancement or directors of development on the costs and benefits of such campaign publications. The most interesting information I gleaned was that even though those fund-raising leaders did not find the glossy case statement to be helpful for 90 per cent of their campaign audience — in fact, many expressed frustration and even hostility about having to spend the time and money producing it — not one respondent answered that he or she would do a campaign without it.

Why not? The answers were variables of a single reason: “The president (or the board, or the campaign chair, or a similar audience of 1 to 20) wants it.” Having said that, many went on to list a number of secondary reasons, such as the need to promote the campaign dollar goals generally; the need for a “cheat sheet” that volunteers and staff could take on calls; a “pride” piece for the institution; and something to give alumni.

We are in the midst of a consumer revolution built on the remarkable and labor-intensive notion of customized mass marketing. From Yahoo to Amazon.com to student recruitment, successful marketers are tailoring a template to the specific known interests and habits of individual targets. Given that 80 to 90 per cent of most capital-campaign dollars come from 10 per cent of campaign donors, is it any wonder that the time has come for the large, impersonal case statement to give way to individual, strategic communications created for specific prospects?

Communications are still key in fund raising. But it’s time to sit down with the president and talk about better ways to get to the bottom line.

Susan C. Shea
Principal
Susan Shea/Associates
Sausalito, Cal.