Private High School Nearly Doubles Goal with
Personalized, Relevant Fundraiser
A century old private high school (grades 9-12) has been fundraising for the last 15 years. For the last 5 years the school sent a personalized letter in an envelope with a Postage Paid Business Reply Envelope. This year it was their goal to do something different that would attract attention and increase donations. Their goal was an 8% increase in the amount raised over a one year period.
Campaign Architecture
Historically, the school mails twice a year and this was the second mailer so Baber Direct only had one chance to reach their goal of increasing donations by 8%. The appeal had to be outstanding. The school had a lot of information including a constituency code that indicated the former student's extracurricular activities such as participation in football or other sports, band, theater etc. There were 8 constituency codes.
Baber Direct took a big chance and recommended a self mailer with a glued in Remittance Envelope. Self mailers are almost never used for fundraising but in this case, with the same letter style appeal being used year after year, Baber Direct's strategy was to send something that wouldn't easily be forgotten and would encourage the recipient to read it. It was strategic that it not arrive in an envelope.
Baber Direct produced a 16.5x9 self mailer in full color on 2 sides of 80# gloss cover produced by variable data printing. It scored and folded to 9x5.5. This is also known as a 6 panel mailer. The mail panel included a picture which varied based on the recipient's constituency code. If they played football, a picture of a football game would print on the mail panel. If they were in theater, a picture of a play would be used, etc. That was the only variable data on the outside of the mailer. On the inside left panel, a personalized letter was printed based on 3 different giving groups…alumni, parents and friends.
The school went through all its high school annuals which went back to 1947 and they scanned the main picture from each annual. There were 63 pictures in all. Additionally, they scanned each year's "class" picture and there were 71 of those.
For alumni, which are the largest giving group, the middle panel was personalized just for them. At the top of the page was the year the student graduated. Just below that was the picture from the recipient's Senior year high school annual. Faded into the background of the middle panel was the class picture with the year showing.
The strategy was a "walk down memory lane" with pictures that everyone would remember. The mailer was designed to bring back good memories of the recipient's days in high school.
Results
The school reached and exceeded its goal of an 8% increase in money raised. At the end of the campaign, they had nearly doubled their goal for an increase of 14.2% or $50,836.
Conclusion
Personalization worked well. The Alumni saw that the school was taking time to notice them by acknowledging the year they graduated and putting together a personal and relevant message that would engage them. The school has now established a connection with alumni that will pay dividends year after year as long as they continue to send them relevant messages. |
