Fundraising Detective

An Example of Why the Little Things Matter

I wanted to follow up my posts last week with an example of how the little things can make a big difference.

It's about a legacy mailing my mum recently received from the charity who she sponsors a child with.

Nearly every effort had been made to personalise the mailing and to create the illusion that is it really was a one-to-one communication with my mum.

The signatory of the appeal had enclosed a business card, their picture was in the enclosed brochure, the letter named the child being sponsored and the response form was also personalised.

I was really impressed with it and it nearly created the impression of a personal letter until I turned over the page.

The problem?

A badly scanned in, photocopied signature.

Why go to all the effort to produce such an individual mailing and then not take the final step and sign the letter personally?

Now you might say that no-one would expect a genuine signature or it would take too much time and that it wouldn't be worth the effort.  For me that simply isn't good enough.

Given a typical legacy can be worth over £50,000 then it must be worth finding a way to sign the letters? 

For example, you could do them in batches so you can better respond to any replies. This would also give you the opportunity to tweak future versions and you could also then have the time to do a follow up phone call.

Now you might think I'm being overly critical and picky, but given that so much effort had gone into the pack and the data selection (my mum is approaching 60 and has given for a number of years - a prime legacy target) then it is such a shame they didn't take the final step and truly make it a stand out communication.

As Seth points out:

"The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you're doing is the standard amount, all you're going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it's the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already."

Legacy Advertising: Great Idea or Waste of Space?

I've been amazed at how many phone calls I've received over the last couple of weeks from advertisers offering me 'a great deal' and an 'unmissable opportunity' to advertise my charity in their esteemed publications and websites.

I'll be honest and say I'm a bit sceptical about advertising in solicitor's publications and on websites/magazines for the over 50's as I haven't seen any hard evidence that someone has chosen to leave a legacy because of an advert they'd seen in one of their brochures.

There are two main problems with this type of legacy advertising:

1. So many other charities are advertising with these publications/websites that it is almost impossible to produce a compelling enough advert that will make someone want to give.
2. Leaving a gift in your will to a charity is not done on a whim.  It is a deeply personal decision that reflects your values, beliefs and (possibly) a lifetime of giving and support to that organisation.

The money spent on advertising for legacies would be better invested on research to understand your donors and their motives for giving and then using this research to produce outstanding communications that would inspire them to want to leave a legacy to you.

This might be harder work, but I'm convinced it will be far more successful in the long run. 

I would love to hear if anyone has any success stories about advertising for legacies in this way.  I asked about this on Twitter and the responses I got from @parkeslife, @markyphillips and @derekhumphries suggested I am right to be sceptical...

Legacy Fundraising Tips

The latest Institute of Fundraising newsletter members contains a couple of interesting articles, with my favourite being this one: reminding people about some of the key facts and fundamentals of legacy marketing.

Richard Radcliffe's 'Seven Keys to Success' should be etched into every fundraisers mind, as every fundraiser (regardless of discipline) should be promoting legacy giving when the have the opportunity to do so. What Richard doesn't know about legacies probably isn't worth knowing. If you're interested at all about legacies, then do try and hear Richard speak.

As well as being highly entertaining, he is also extremely knowledgable and has conducted thousands of focus groups and interviews with potential legators.