Why Direct Mail is Essential in your Nonprofit End of Year Appeal

As the end of the year rolls in, campaigns to fund programming start to fill donors and supporters inboxes and mailboxes. Looking for a few tips to stand out as well as connect enough to maximize your fundraising efforts? Try direct mail!

There is a strategic link between direct mail and non-profit organizations. Furthermore, direct mail is the glue that holds together nonprofits and their donors.

Direct mail’s role in non-profit organizations

First, to incentivize donors and supporters, direct mail marketing strategies are essential. These strategic campaigns aim to remind stakeholders and supporters of the importance and uniqueness of their participation and donations. Examples of this are a sweet reminder to your partner of how much you care about them. However, to be effective, a direct mail campaign must include the following key elements.

Personalization is key

Most of the time, emails are never opened by recipients. Due to the hyper-digital season of the pandemic, we live in an era where drawing someone’s attention using Emotional Intelligence. Therefore, it is important to send personalized handwritten messages by taking advantage of demographic information. Non-Profit Source’s statistics prove the effectiveness of individual and personalized moves. Contacting a customer one-on-one increases the likelihood of response up to 50 percent or more. Personalization increases the response rate by up to 500 percent.

Handwritten cards

A paper alternative to persuasive emails is visual postcards. Although they can be time-consuming, personally handwritten cards can make the recipient feel extra special. Comparatively, this can also deepen the relationship and loyalty they will have with your organization. If the thought makes your hand cramp, check out companies like Handwrite.

Personality and gifts galore

An additional strategy to awaken and engage your donors and supporters is by sending them gifts. Who doesn’t love gifts? And it does not have to be elaborate or expensive. The important thing is making them feel good, as well as feel special. Correspondingly, every time they see that gift they think of the cause they are contributing to and the reason to continue doing so.

The power of storytelling

Moreover, Emotional Intelligence is the magic formula that is crucial for any direct mail strategy. This concept focuses on being aware of feelings and adjusting your messaging to connect with them. As a non-profit, storytelling is perhaps the most effective way to attract and engage supporters. In turn, this may be enough to kick-start them into active involvement. Of course, this can be through volunteering time or supporting your organization monetarily.

Providing a personal story about how a donation improved someone’s quality of life can impact your audience in a personal way. An example: Robel, age 7, now has the opportunity to go to school) And another tactic is to share the implications of programs and services lacking contributions and the impacts on those served. An example: Young girls aged 12-16 in Warner Robins, Georgia currently have limited access to [blank] facilities; here’s how you can help.

A direct mail case study: Fondazione Grigioni

Fondazione Grigioni is an Italian non-profit organization whose mission is to provide funding for Parkinson’s Syndrome research. It is a perfect case study to understand and recognize a well-thought direct mail strategy.

For the organization’s end-of-year annual campaign, staff sends a grateful message thanking donors and supporters for all of their support. Subsequently, this message is then supplemented with a bag of aromatic plant seeds. As a result, served as a symbol of the seeds planted into the organization and its stakeholders. As the plant grows, it blooms. And this is symbolic of their monetary and time donations. Every day, seeing your plant, you are reminded of your effort, which allows society to grow.

In conclusion, we can say that these strategies are the engine of nonprofit development. This is an essential tool for the success of the cause they believe in. Given direct mail’s pivotal role, communication skills are a must. PivotPath is an optimal solution for the creation of the techniques and certainty to its success.

What’s HOT in Nonprofit Communication Trends?

by Caroline Miles

How to Communicate with your Non-Profit Organization (The New Trends)

Nonprofits have seen a significant change in their marketing strategies, communication, and fundraising since the pandemic impacted their organizations. They have been creative in planning their communication with others and what that will look like post-pandemic. Look to see What’s Hot in Nonprofit Communication Trends.

communicating with your team members effectively — University students talking to their teacher while learning the lecture over the Internet at the campus.

The Importance of Time Management for your Nonprofit

The pandemic took a toll on many companies in regard to planning the future of their business. Most goals were put on hold for a year or even longer. Companies are still apprehensive about planning due to the uncertainty of post-pandemic life. The company needs to manage its time efficiently so it can work towards completing the goals it did not get to finish before the pandemic. Employees and volunteers are also returning to the office after many months of working from home, which may come with distractions.

Virtual is the New Normal for Communication in your Nonprofit

What’s Hot in Nonprofit Communication Trends? A significant change in communication between organizations has been the use of virtual meetings. If it weren’t for zoom or FaceTime, most sessions would not have been as informative without face-to-face contact with people. Nonprofits have focused on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to market to people. Social media has become a place for all ages to stay up-to-date on the news and find entertainment for hours on end. Nonprofits are still strategizing on better ways to communicate with others since COVID restrictions are easing up around the world. However, they may still try to utilize some of the marketing and communication strategies they learned from the pandemic into the future of their organizations. This will allow them to reach a broad audience that supports their organization and mission.

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Social Enterprises: What Does Recovery Look Like in 2021?

by Ella Nordell-Morris

Over the past year, many businesses have experienced extensive struggles. COVID-19 has hit businesses in ways we have never seen before. While businesses have experienced many hardships, social enterprises have experienced unique challenges. These challenges not only include the success of their business, but the beneficiaries that rely on them.

With so much at stake, social enterprises have been using changes and trends from 2020 to aid in their recovery. Here, we outline some of the changes and trends that helped these organizations recover from the devastating impacts of COVID-19.

Presenting solutions to COVID-19 struggles:

Though social enterprises have faced their own challenges as a result of the pandemic, many have begun to see the benefit of taking on other challenges. This may seem counterproductive, but it has been a beneficial way for social enterprises to get back on their feet.

Social enterprises are built to center around the problem, not the solution or product: the primary focus is their social objective. Because of this, social enterprises have been flexible during the past year with new issues that have been presented. Many organizations have taken a problem that was caused by COVID-19, and created a solution designed to help others. For example, a social enterprise that is centered around fighting poverty could alter their solution to be specific to COVID-19. Focusing on the pandemic’s affects on food insecurity and poverty would be a great way to make the solution more applicable.

By taking on issues that were created due to COVID-19, social enterprises are adjusting their businesses to be more applicable to the current situation, hence making them more marketable and successful in their journey to recovery.

Supporting local or meaningful organizations:

When COVID-19 forced many areas into lockdown, people began to realize how impactful their engagement with businesses could be. Customers wanted to see organizations survive the pandemic, especially ones they felt connected to, like local businesses and meaningful organizations.

This shift in consumer focus has been a major benefit for social enterprises and their recovery. Social enterprises have been highlighting their organizations’ causes to a greater extent to use this trend to their advantage. Tactics such as creating content focused on the mission instead of the product, organizing informational events about a chosen social issue, and participating in public discussions about their social issue have helped social enterprises lean into this shift in consumer focus for their benefit.

Engaging in relevant social issues:

In addition to COVID-19, 2020 welcomed increased discussion and allyship for social issues across the nation. The reignition of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, voter suppression and voting rights in the midst of the election, and the continuous topic of immigration in the U.S. were just a few of the social issues/movements that were present in 2020.

Social enterprises have committed to the issues that are most relevant to their cause. This has allowed them to show support for the causes that mean the most to their organization. While at the same time, gaining the support of other individuals and organizations that are also participating in those movements. By participating in relevant social issues, social enterprises have effectively engaged with meaningful causes and built more substantial consumer relationships.

Recovery can be a difficult process…

Though there are steps being made toward recovery for social enterprises, it can still be a very challenging process. At PivotPath, we understand that your business is more than just worrying about the bottom line or cashflow, it is about concern for the cause and the social issues that shape your work. Let us help you in your organization’s recovery process. Our top-notch marketing services will help you put more time into what really matters: your cause and the people that your organization is able to impact.