20-Question-FINAL-2016-r2

8
How often can you ask in a year
without driving off donors?
Answer: 21 times a year
NOTES AND ASSUMPTIONS…
Doesn’t seem possible, does it? And yet…
Stick with me: this gets complicated.
We were at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference in Seattle. Mid-November,
2014. The hall held a rare concentration of top experts. Next to me at the table sat
Jeff Brooks, a senior copywriter at TrueSense, one of America’s best direct mail firms.
A fundraiser in the audience asked a seemingly simple question: “How often
can you ask in a year without losing donors?”
The answer?
I glanced at Jeff. He flashed the number 20 with his fingers. Really?
Then another fundraiser took the floor to describe a test he’d done, to see what
the limit was. His charity mailed 21 solicitations in a year before gifts tapered off.
And is 21 really all that intrusive? It comes down to less than two solicitations per
month. During the US Presidential campaigns I’d get more than two solicitations
per day from candidates I supported.
But let’s be honest: over-solicitation is probably NOT your charity’s problem.
So stand in awe of this shocking true-life maximum number of 21. And know
most charities are nowhere close.
In answer to the question, “How many times a year should I mail my donors?”
Canadian expert Alan Sharpe advises, “Mail at least eight times a year. Mail at least
four appeal letters and mail at least four newsletters (or donor cultivation, donor
information type pieces).” 4
4 p228, Mail Superiority, Alan Sharpe, Andrew Spencer Publishing, 2008
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20 Questions RE Donor Communications © Tom Ahern, 2016