# As social media fundraising steals the attention of fundraisers does this mean that printed communications are a dying breed?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/04/social-media-fundraising-steals-attention-fundraisers-does-mean-printed-communications-are-dying-bre/
- Published: 2009-06-04T23:16:10+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

These days one of the questions I am often asked by clients and participants in 
our McConkey Johnston’s fundraising workshops is: Is now the time to do more online
communications and less printed mailings?

 

My honest answer is: ‘No, not yet. Not even in the foreseeable future’

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

 

Please don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying here that if donors are asking you
to send them e-mail newsletters and updates instead of printed ones you should ignore
their request. Also I am not saying that a charity should not use online tools as
well as printed communications.

 

What I am saying here is that direct mail and other printed communications are not
dead! As a matter of fact, newsletters, donor renewal packages and fundraising appeals
when crafted carefully with the right dose of creativity and inspiration can produce
great results. Results generated by several of our clients can testify to this even
in the middle of the recession.

 

What’s more, I constantly find that new donors acquired through direct mail are 
more likely to make second and third contributions to a cause compared to new donors
acquired through social media fundraising tools.

 

The bottom line is that some fundraisers and many CEO’s get so excited about online
communications which potentially can be easier, faster and cheaper in the long run.
But, they seem to overlook the fact that if they not getting good returns from their
printed communications they are not going to get great results from online ones 
either.

 

In such cases the problem is not with the communication channel but with the lack
of a proper fundraising plan, ineffective donor segmentations, boring copy, lack
of compelling ask … and the list can go on.

 

So before cutting your printed publications budget and investing heavily in a new
website and other online communications tools and initiatives take time to review
your overall strategy, map out your donor cultivation cycles, get useful insights
from your database, examine your cause concepts, revitalise your brand and refresh
your copy. Having done all this you would be ready to

integrate online and offline communications channels for profitable fundraising.

 

Redina Kolaneci

Senior Consultant

www.mcconkey-johnston.co.uk

 

 * **[The List of Change – new ranking of cause-related blogs](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/10/list-change-new-ranking-causerelated-blogs/)**(
   10 June 2009)
 * **[Goodbye, hello, and thanks Jenny](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/12/goodbye-hello-and-thanks-jenny/)**(
   12 June 2009)
 * **[Where has the time gone?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/28/where-has-time-gone/)**(
   28 June 2009)