Oct 24, 2012

Direct Marketing Fundraising Association October 2012 meeting

Posted by Wendy Weber

I almost didn’t attend today’s DMFA luncheon.  The topic was Planned Giving, and I am a direct marketer.

My true motivation was to network with the nonprofit fundraisers in the room, since we have a search underway for a National Director Direct Response Fundraising.

However, it was interesting to learn about the relationship between direct mail fundraising and planned gift cultivation.  Apparently, there are donors who send $50 per year to a cause, and then stop responding to direct mail solicitations.  They have made a decision to bequeath hundreds of thousands of dollars…unknown to the organization until years later!  It would be easy for an organization to stop mailing such a donor, because once they stop giving it could be assumed that the cause is no longer dear to the donor’s heart…when actually, the donor stopped sending the annual check because they had included the nonprofit  in their will!  So although one might think that direct mail and planned giving are in 2 separate silos, the mailings are instrumental in “planting the seeds” of planned giving.

Also interesting, one of the speakers, Davida Isaacson, said that oftentimes there is a box on direct mail bre’s that asks the donors to “check here if you would like information about planned giving”.  However, it is important that the team opening the mail direct those bre’s for proper response.  Imagine…a potential million dollar donor not receiving any follow up because of an administrative flummox!

The latest statistics show that 40% of planned giving estates come from the direct mail donor base.

In