A direct mail campaign sent to donors its email housefile last month raised $45,000 in four days for The Wheeler Mission, an organization that feeds and assists the homeless in Indianapolis.
The 9,000 piece mailing sent on Dec. 28 netted a 3% response rate, says Steve Kerr, chief development officer.
Why was there a surge of end-of-year donations? One obvious reason is the potential tax deductions, says Kerr, noting that the media attention Indianapolis is receiving because it's hosting the Superbowl hasn't hurt either.
But despite these results, one Mission goal this year is to greatly reduce the amount of conventional mail and replace it with email.
“When I hear things like more than half of all web searches are done on smartphones and that by 2013 desktop computers will be obsolete and IPads and smartphones will be taking over this motivates us highly,” says Kerr. “I don’t think postal mail is going to go away but I’d love to see us get more into electronic media.”
Wheeler has 9,000 an email opt-in list of names collected through a box printed in its postal mail pieces and at special events like its Drumstick Dash, a footrace on Thanksgiving Day that drew 15,000 runners. Email appeals are sent out on a monthly basis.
The organization currently mails more than 500,000 pieces annually to both donors and prospects. The prospect mailings, sent mostly in the fall, go to rented lists primarily of Christian magazine subscribers, says Kerr.
The Mission, which has more than 3,000 followers on Facebook is looking to upgrade the site with daily news feeds and testimonial stories, Kerr says.
One current news story on the page is an article from the Indianapolis Star indicating the city government will not remove homeless people from the street when the Superbowl takes place.
Kerr does not think Facebook or other social media sites are yet effective fundraising mediums but a good way to establish a community.
The same goes for the mission’s YouTube page on which the Mission runs inspirational testimonial videos and news about the mission itself, he says.
Donors to the 119-year-old nonprofit tend to live primarily in the local area although some live in Florida and Arizona due to retirements, he says. Not surprisingly, direct mail donors tend to be older and female, while online donors are generally younger.
A direct mail campaign sent to donors its email housefile last month raised $45,000 in four days for The Wheeler Mission, an organization that feeds and assists the homeless in Indianapolis.
The 9,000 piece mailing sent on Dec. 28 netted a 3% response rate, says Steve Kerr, chief development officer.
Why was there a surge of end-of-year donations? One obvious reason is the potential tax deductions, says Kerr, noting that the media attention Indianapolis is receiving because it's hosting the Superbowl hasn't hurt either.
But despite these results, one Mission goal this year is to greatly reduce the amount of conventional mail and replace it with email.
“When I hear things like more than half of all web searches are done on smartphones and that by 2013 desktop computers will be obsolete and IPads and smartphones will be taking over this motivates us highly,” says Kerr. “I don’t think postal mail is going to go away but I’d love to see us get more into electronic media.”
Wheeler has 9,000 an email opt-in list of names collected through a box printed in its postal mail pieces and at special events like its Drumstick Dash, a footrace on Thanksgiving Day that drew 15,000 runners. Email appeals are sent out on a monthly basis.
The organization currently mails more than 500,000 pieces annually to both donors and prospects. The prospect mailings, sent mostly in the fall, go to rented lists primarily of Christian magazine subscribers, says Kerr.
The Mission, which has more than 3,000 followers on Facebook is looking to upgrade the site with daily news feeds and testimonial stories, Kerr says.
One current news story on the page is an article from the Indianapolis Star indicating the city government will not remove homeless people from the street when the Superbowl takes place.
Kerr does not think Facebook or other social media sites are yet effective fundraising mediums but a good way to establish a community.
The same goes for the mission’s YouTube page on which the Mission runs inspirational testimonial videos and news about the mission itself, he says.
Donors to the 119-year-old nonprofit tend to live primarily in the local area although some live in Florida and Arizona due to retirements, he says. Not surprisingly, direct mail donors tend to be older and female, while online donors are generally younger.
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