UNICEF is mailing a donor acquisition package that is making plenty of recipients furious. I know why. The package is a #10 window envelope that features, peeking through the window, a shiny 5 cent piece. A piece of teaser copy on the envelope points to the coin and exclaims: “This nickel could save a child’s life!”
Inside, sure enough, is a genuine American nickel stuck to the reply device. The letter recounts harrowing tales of dying children who can be saved for only pennies. “Every nickel counts in our battle to save innocent children’s lives!” the letter explains.On the reply device, the writer asks you to mail the nickel back to UNICEF with your donation as a sign of your support. “It might be enough to save a child’s life!”
In the letter postscript, the writer asks you to mail the nickel back to UNICEF even if you don’t make a donation, “as a sign of your support for children in desperate need around the world—every nickel counts in our battle to save innocent children’s lives!”
This nickel acquisition package is upsetting potential donors because it forces them to ask some penetrating questions:
Q1. “If you at UNICEF can save a child’s life with only a nickel, then why don’t you use the nickel you mailed me to do just that?”
Q2. “If every nickel counts, then why are you folks at UNICEF proving that you have enough nickels already (by mailing hundreds of thousands of nickels to people like me)?”
Q3. “Why are you trying to guilt me into making a donation? Don’t you know that I support because I care, not because I am coerced?”
Q4. Why don’t you pay the postage on your own business reply envelope? Why do you expect me to return your nickel to you on my nickel? Or, to be more accurate, on my 37 cents?”
Q5. “Doesn’t making people hunt for a stamp to put on your business reply envelope almost guarantee those people predisposed to keep your nickel will do exactly that?”
Q6. “If, as I have been told, the response rate for a mailing like this is around 1%, then doesn’t that mean you are throwing away $5,000 for every 100,000 pieces you mail? Why didn’t you save 100,000 ‘children in desperate need around the world’ with that money instead?”
Q7. “If 5 cents is such a big deal, why do you spend more than 5 cents mailing nickels across the country? Aren’t you contradicting your case for support?”
You might be interested in . . .
Handbook Number 11
Attract New Donors and Members with
a Magnetic Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Package.
Discover over 75 tips, insider secrets and proven tactics by analyzing a superb donor acquisition package from a national charity.
Attract New Donors and Members with
a Magnetic Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Package.
Discover over 75 tips, insider secrets and proven tactics by analyzing a superb donor acquisition package from a national charity.
I agree. I don’t understand this practice. The World Food Program did a similar mailer about a year ago, I was so upset, that I asked to be removed from their list. They still send me solicitations with different tchotchkes in the mailer. These communications make me think they really don’t need my donation.
Organizations mail nickel packages because they work – statistically. Yes, a number of people will be infuriated by the technique, but many more will not. The reason many non profits are mailing nickels and pennies, etc., is because the changes in postal regulations made it impossible to attract a prospective donor’s attention using larger formats, bulkier formats, etc. Granted the cost of the nickle is a dead loss or an unavoidable increase in the package’s cost, but your estimate of a 1% response rate with donations is very, very low. On the other side of the coin, organizations that mail non premium letters with high production values are spending the same amount of money per package mailed. Why not chastise them for spending too much on nice paper stocks, closed face envelopes (match mailings)? Coin packages, like all premium packages, have their place in Acquisition and Donor appeals, but they are most effective when used in conjunction with a full complement of others techniques and formats.
I have just received Unicef’s nickel. Mildly irritated I am nonetheless contemplating becoming a global parent. However, a search to discover how much of my actual donation will be forwarded to the cause, rather than pay for fund raising has drawn a blank. Is there a site where I can discover the figure? For that matter, figures for any of the agencies I am considering…like Foster Parents Plan?