# Best use of direct mail

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/06/16/best-use-direct-mail-607/
- Published: 2011-06-16T12:15:29+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

For the campaign that demonstrates the best use of direct mail in fundraising

 

The shortlisted entries in alphabetical order are

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RNIB

 

St Barnabas House

 

Salvation Army

 

**RNIB**

 

Gruffalo campaign

 

The campaign aimed to generate cash income from existing donors and acquire new 
cash donors from cold (reciprocal) lists in the run up to Christmas. Direct mail
has traditionally proved the most successful medium for RNIB. The target audience
was the stereotypical Dorothy Donors – aged 75+ – so the pack had to stand out from
the crowd. The creative concept challenged recipients to consider what a child’s
life would be like if they never encountered famous characters from popular children’s
books, both classic and contemporary. Asks were at a variety of levels and results
exceeded forecasts on every level. Even the cold lists achieved a response rate 
of 1.83% against a target of 1.2%.

 

**St Barnabas House**

 

Building a dream

 

This was St Barnabas’ first foray into direct mail. This campaign was targeted to
generate £0.4m gross cash over two years from DM activity for the Building a Dream
capital appeal to build a new hospice in Worthing. It needed to recruit 2,000 new
doors and reactivate and develop up to 10,000 existing donors. It was delivered 
in five planned stages over the two years from a warm DM campaign around Planning
Permission to ‘Patient Comfort’ where supporters contributed to the cost of new 
furniture and equipment. Cold activity recruited 3,700 new supporters with each 
of four cold campaigns returning a profit. All warm campaigns returned at least 
a 4:1 immediate profit.

 

**Salvation Army**

 

Christmas 2010 donor mailing

 

The main objective was to raise as much as possible through a one-off donation from
the active donorbase. Brand new creative (Lost and Found) was developed using donor
research findings. This was tested head to head against the 2009 creative to those
donors recruited at Christmas 2009. Donors could respond by post, phone or online.
Emails were sent before and after the mailing to those donors who had opted to receive
email updates. The mailing to 690,000 was forecast to get a 15% response rate with
a £25 average gift. It achieved a 21% response rate with an average gift of £32.53.
The new pack proved to be more responsive than the old and the reactivation part
of the campaign was also very successful.

 

 * **[Fundraising team of the year](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/06/16/fundraising-team-year-570/)**(
   16 June 2011)
 * **[Volunteer fundraiser of the year](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/06/16/volunteer-fundraiser-year-973/)**(
   16 June 2011)
 * **[Institute's National Convention wins conference award](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/06/21/institute039s-national-convention-wins-conference-award/)**(
   21 June 2011)