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A properly integrated development office identifies these targeted mail donors through wealth screening and has the staff to make personal contact with them and plumb the potential to elevate them to greater generosity and involvement. The annual-giving officers are central to feeding the major-gift pipeline, and the direct-mail program gives them “grist for the mill."
If your in-house mail program is not growing net revenue and increasing the pool of active donors from year to year, you should consider bringing in an expert to help turn things around. Whether you hire a dedicated staff specialist or an experienced direct-response consultant, you need someone who can look beyond the typical metrics that define mediocrity, and offer integrated wisdom and technique to ensure that direct mail becomes an effective and productive incubator for your major- and planned-gift donor portfolio.
And here’s the silver lining: You can now retask and retrain the annual-giving staff (formerly assigned to direct mail) to take personal engagement to the next level, meet with prospective major donors and ask for larger gifts. This is why we call it “development” and not simply “fundraising.”
Larry G. Raff is president of fundraising consultancy Copley Raff. Nelson Checkoway is president of Checkoway Consulting and a senior consultant at Copley Raff.
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