Fundraising Letter Frequency: Mail Often Enough to Prove Friends Stay in Touch.

By Alan Sharpe, CFRE
Want to know one of the most vital truths in direct mail fundraising? Friends stay in touch.

Direct mail fundraising is like having a long-distance friendship by mail. You write. They write. You write. They write. And so your friendship grows. Because you stay in touch.

But how often should you write your donors? Once a month? Once a quarter? How often is enough? How often is too little? How often is too much? Well, consider these findings from a recent survey of leading non-profit organizations who work in a number of charitable sectors. See how often they wrote to this donor, and decide for yourself how often you should write to yours.

Here’s how the survey was conducted. On Mon, 12 Jun 2006, I made a donation of $20 to 20 non-profit organizations in Canada and the United States. Then I watched my mailbox and email inbox to see how many organizations wrote back to me over the next few months, and how often.

Today is Friday, August 31, so the results below show you how many times each organization corresponded with me during the 11 weeks following my donation. These results do not include the gift acknowledgement or thank-you letter the organizations mailed in response to my gift. These figures only show the number of appeal letters, newsletters, alerts or other correspondence that each organization mailed or emailed to me after they thanked me for my initial gift.

Eleven weeks after I sent them a donation, the following organizations wrote to me this many times:

Amnesty International: 7
Insight for Living: 6
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: 5
Focus on the Family: 4
Ontario March of Dimes: 3
Trans World Radio: 3
Greenpeace Canada: 2
Mothers Against Drunk Driving: 2
Canadian Red Cross: 1
Samaritan’s Purse: 1
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence: 1
World Wildlife Fund Canada: 1
American Friends Service Committee: 0
Canadian Cancer Society: 0
Covenant House: 0
London Health Sciences Centre: 0
National Down Syndrome Society: 0
Oxfam Canada: 0
Project Ploughshares: 0
Veterans for Peace: 0

So which organization got it right? I won’t tell you. But I will say this: the quality of your friendships with your donors depends more on how often you write than it does on what you write.

You know this to be true in your own friendships. Sometimes you get together with a friend over coffee, or phone her, and yak about nothing memorable at all. But you don’t care, because what you talk about is not as important as simply having that friend to talk to. She’s your friend. And friends stay in touch.

The more you value a friendship, the more you’ll stay in touch. Just ask your donors.

You might be interested in…

Over 130 Sample Fundraising Letters. International, national and local charities share examples of their direct mail fundraising expertise.

Handbook Number 21 Sample Donation Thank-You Letters. Learn how to say “thanks” in ways that win the long-term friendship and loyalty of your donors.

Handbook Number 14 The Fundraising Letter P.S.: 100 and 1 Ways to Make Yours More Powerful. Attract gifts and motivate donors by improving one of the most important sections of your donor appeal letters.