Change Your Thinking About Direct Mail

by: Pamela Barden

Here we are, more than 12 months later, still impacted by the global pandemic. The current supply of fundraising tools available to us may vary by what region we are in, but one thing is true for every reader of this column: We can’t do fundraising exactly like we did just over a year ago. We may return to the glory days of one-on-one meetings without masks at large galas, golf tournaments and small group gatherings, but predicting when that will happen for everyone is not my superpower.

What I can tell you is that the direct mail appeal has been making a bit of a comeback (though for some, it never stopped being effective). Though the printed fundraising appeal made its debut in 1235 when a Buddhist sage was looking for funds to build a monastery, in recent years, it has been supplanted by eAppeals, social media appeals and numerous other lower cost options that supported event fundraising.

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