Direct mailers are standing by the medium despite the first ever drop in charity sector direct mailing volumes alongside the rising popularity of digital communications.

Royal Mail’s statistics, which date back to 2004, show that volumes in the charity sector have grown steadily from 340m to 412m in 2007. However, 2008 showed a 0.7% drop, with volumes dipping to 409m.

As reported last month the charity sector is being hit by an increase from 3.32% in 2007/08 to 4.64% in 2008/09 in monthly donation cancellations, according to direct debit handler Rapidata.

Charities are now showing a trend towards online promotion, with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds switching from direct mail campaigns to online fundraising, following requests from supporters for e-communications.

However, direct mailing gurus insist that the medium is still has a bright future. Richard Higginbotham, marketing manager at Merseyside-based CDMS, told PrintWeek that direct mailing still plays a key part in the marketing mix

“Direct mailing has the ability to inspire emotions and it gives the recipient something they can take away with them. Runs will go down, but this is partly due to the more targeted, personalised campaigns, which are something that companies really should be looking into,” he added.

Alastair Smith, sales director at north east direct mailer NEMC, added that he expected another upturn in direct mailing volumes after the recession, because companies tend to cut down on acquisitive campaigns, instead focusing on existing client bases.

“We are seeing an end to the ‘carpet bombing’, large-run approach to direct mailing. It will become more targeted, especially with environmental concerns being of increasing importance. Research shows that multi-channel campaigns are the most successful, so expect direct mailing to play an important part for many years yet.”

According to the Charities Commission’s latest survey, more than half of charities (52%) admitted that they were feeling the effects of the recession in February, compared with 38% when the survey was carried out in September. Tom Hall, printweek.com, 08 April 2009 ]]> http://charityline.net/latest-news/charity-dm-volumes-hit-by-recession-and-online-competition/feed/ 0 http://charityline.net/latest-news/more-will-cut-out-food-than-donations/ http://charityline.net/latest-news/more-will-cut-out-food-than-donations/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:13:39 +0000 hayley http://charityline.net/?p=178 Households will reduce large expenditure first, survey finds

People are less likely to cut back on giving to charity in the coming year than on eating out, clothes or weekly food shopping, according to the latest survey from think tank nfpSynergy.

Thirty-four per cent of respondents said they would either ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ cut back on giving to charity in the next 12 months, but 64 per cent said they would cut back on eating out, 60 per cent would buy less clothing and 52 per cent would spend less on the weekly food shop.

NfpSynergy researcher Jonathan Baker said: “This could be because donating to charity takes up a relatively small amount of someone’s budget, so people do not envisage making large savings from this area.”

The survey asked 1,000 people to rate how likely they were to reduce their outgoings in seven areas of household expenditure.

By Sarah Townsend, Third Sector, 10 March 2009

By Helen Barrett, Third Sector Online, 20 February 2009

Short, personalised emails to supporters work better, says Thomas Gensemer, the man behind US President’s online election campaign

Email newsletters to supporters are a waste of time and effort and should be ditched by charities and NGOs, according to Barack Obama’s digital strategist.

Speaking at a presentation at City University in London this week, Thomas Gensemer, managing partner of Blue State Digital, the company behind President Obama’s online election campaign, urged organisations to instead send short, personalised emails to supporters giving clear instructions for participation.

“Email newsletters don’t get read, yet they take more effort to prepare than a 250-word email,” he said. “Email is still a killer application, but only when used properly.”

Gensemer urged organisations to promote their causes by adopting the digital media principles of the ‘Obama for America’ presidential campaign, which raised more than $500m (£350m) in donations from more than three million individual donors online. Volunteers created more than 30,000 groups online and organised more than 200,000 offline campaign events leading up to last November’s election.

Fundraising and participation tactics included sending regular, short emails to supporters asking recipients to do one thing that day. Each email also told the supporter what their action would accomplish and what would happen next.

These emails gave supporters a “steady narrative of actions, feedback and milestones”, Gensemer said.

Obama rewarded supporters who took action with public praise. Gensemer said the tactic had elicited a “new sense of transparency” among supporters about where their money was going.

By Hannah Jordan, Third Sector Online, 23 January 2009

Donors more likely to stay loyal to a charity if emails and calls are customised, research finds

Charities that personalise at least one part of their communications with donors experience lower drop out rates than those that don’t, according to new research.

In-depth analysis of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association’s 2008 attrition survey results (Third Sector Online, 7 July) shows that donors were more likely to remain loyal to their chosen charity if they received customised communications such as a newsletter or welcome text, call or email.

Charities that contacted their donors between three and eight times a year were also more likely to retain donors than those that communicated twice or less.

The latest research, carried out by Adrian Sargeant, professor of fundraising at Indiana University, analysed various communication methods submitted to the original survey and worked out how they were likely to affect donor payments. Between April and May 2008, 30 charities provided data of about 377,000 individual donor payment histories and 74 campaigns that ran between 2004 and 2006.

The results could not be quantified in terms of percentages, but instead suggested how more or less likely a donor would be to stay with a charity in response to various options.

The PFRA intends to run the attrition survey again in the spring and is inviting current and past members to submit details of donor payment patters from face-to-face campaigns run between 2007 and 2008.

The results of Sargeant’s analysis and the spring attrition survey will be presented at this year’s Institute of Fundraising National Convention in July.

Livy Carver, Publications and Marketing Coordinator, Trust for the Study of Adolescence

Umbrella body calls on Government to provide support in response to recession consultation.

The NCVO has called on the Government to put together a support package of at least £100m to help the voluntary sector through the economic downturn.

The package should include a £47m fund that would provide grants and short-term loans to charities in financial difficulty, the umbrella body said.

A pot of £12m should be made available to support charity mergers and collaborations, and a further £20m should be made available to support innovative ideas to help communities through the downturn, it proposed.

The proposals were included in the NCVO’s submission to the Government’s consultation on what help the sector needs during the economic slump.

Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the NCVO, said: “It is vital that the Government commits to these steps that will ensure the sector can cope with the economic downturn.

“We expect parity with the treatment of other sectors, but it also requires action by the Government. It must not act in ways that create additional financial problems for the sector, and we want assurances that commitments to fair funding and contracting will be met.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said the department had received “excellent input” from sector organisations.
“The Office of the Third Sector is considering a range of proposals and will publish its action plan shortly,” he said.

By Andy Ricketts, Third Sector Online, 21 January 2009

The Fundraising Standards Board is launching a recruitment campaign this week in an effort to boost its membership, which stands at 950 organisations.

The regulatory body is targeting organisations with incomes of more than £1m in a four-month drive that includes 2,000 mail shots and four high-profile magazine adverts. The Office of the Third Sector is backing the campaign with a £100,000 grant.

Other measures include a telemarketing campaign and an online application process on the FRSB’s website, which has been redesigned to simplify joining.
Last year, the FRSB reduced recruitment targets for the self-regulatory body from 4,000-5,000 by 2010 to 2,000 by the same date. It also announced fee rises for larger charities. Andrew Nebel, a board member at the FRSB, said the campaign highlighted the benefits of membership. “By being the best they can be in their fundraising activity, organisations are giving people the confidence to give to them,” he said.

Jeremy Jalie, Deputy Director, Vision Aid Overseas