package that won the award for the best renewal campaign and how Helen Keller International captured the most votes for the best acquisition package. In addition to highlighting the key success factors for these great direct mail packages, we will also walk through the strategy behind our e-mail campaign award winner, PetSmart Charities.

Understanding

the strategy used to develop these great campaigns may help you to brainstorm or leverage some great ideas for your

own program, so be sure to register for the DMFA’s first educational event of the fall!

key

p>Each June, members of the Direct Marketing Fundraising Association (DMFA) present their best direct mail and email fundraising campaigns for a chance to win the Package of the Year Award. This year, SankyNet submitted a year-end email postcard sent on behalf of Covenant House.

We are pleased to announce that SankyNet’s year-end appeal for Covenant House was honored as the runner-up in this extremely competitive category! The highly effective email postcard was sent after a month of heavy solicitation, yet still raised over $150,000 in just 3 days.

Timing is always a key factor when developing a strategy for e-solicitation. During the winter holiday season, SankyNet sent Covenant House donors three compelling appeals capitalizing on an exciting matching gift opportunity.

The award-winning year-end postcard followed this robust campaign. Sent during the last moments of 2009, the postcard encouraged donors to take advantage of their last chance to receive a 2009 tax-deduction as well as have their gift matched 2-to-1.

Because of its impeccable timing, this attractive and relevant postcard proved to be most successful solicitation SankyNet produced for Covenant House that year – and the results more than doubled what was raised during the 2008 Year-End

campaign.

We are truly grateful to work with dynamic organizations such as Covenant House, and proud to help them achieve such growth in their fundraising programs even during these difficult times. This honor is truly a reflection of Covenant House’s commitment to excellence as they work to rescue homeless kids from life on the streets.

View all the DMFA awards from Package of the Year.

If their craft is direct mail, they grip us at the opening and tug us through three or four hundred words of vivid storytelling. By the end of the letter, they have us hearing their case, feeling their cause, and opening our hearts— and pocketbooks.

Don't believe the writer who tells you it's easier to write a great short letter than a long one. On the other hand — with all due respect — don't believe anyone who tells you that it's impossible to write a terrific and moving email.

Email fundraising is a learned craft. And it's a very tough one. In just a few words, we must tell a story that will quickly and deeply resonate. In an email, every single word we use is precious. Every single phrase is potentially powerful— and potentially deadly. There is no margin to misstep or even settle for something that's just OK. One bad choice and you may lose your donor or prospect to the black hole of the "unsubscribe" button forever.

Fortunately, many fundraisers do seem to be learning the craft, and learning it well. Last we did the math, the amount of money being raised via email in the U.S. was numbering in the billions of dollars.

The problem with email fundraising, in our view, is that far too many fundraisers

forget that emails can't be, fundamentally, all about fundraising. Email tools must first and foremost be used to engage, cultivate, and captivate our constituents. And finally — in the right way at just the right moment — to ask for that donation.

It's a delicate dance. But we've seen it done to perfection more times than we can count. Have you?

We'd like to see some of the emails that

have moved you to give or performed well for your organization. Please forward your examples to us at info@sankyinc.com.

And be sure to let our friend Tom at The Agitator know what you think— he needs to be convinced!

P.S. We've posted just a few of the many emails that have moved us here:

Here are four key reasons why every nonprofit should have a good direct marketing program:

• Many constituents prefer direct mail
  Your donors are not a monolith. While many prefer digital engagement, a large portion of donors prefer direct mail. Also, with the email inbox becoming more crowded than the mailbox, mail can finally demand a little more attention.
• It integrates well with other channels
  The web has allowed us to better target our mail. Sending mail after receiving online donations is great at encouraging second donations – sometimes higher than the initial ones! In other words, direct mail enhances online marketing and vice versa. It’s a win-win.
• It’s great at maintaining loyalty
  Donating in a few clicks or ‘liking’ a cause are very easy to do – and arguably, also easy to forget about afterwards. Donating through direct mail requires a little more effort, likely
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  building a tighter bond with donors. These donors generally last longer, as well.

• You can touch it!
  There’s something about holding it in your hands, isn’t there? Nothing gets the message across and establishes credibility like a solid, engaging direct mail piece. It somehow feels more official – and perhaps worthy of a higher donation. According to this study, that’s exactly the case.

Browse our website

for more information on SankyDirect’s wide array of direct mail services.

Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ernan-roman/have-you-forgotten-about-_b_1465914.html

https://delivermagazine.com/2012/08/staying-power-of-direct-mail/
http://www.blog.caslon.net/direct-mail-not-dead-yet

p>So far this has been a great year for Sanky Communications both on the direct mail side and for our web team. A case in point: a slew of awards for SankyNet! We would like to send them our congratulations on winning three Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) awards and two Direct Marketing Fundraising Association (DMFA) awards.

It’s wonderful to see their amazing work receive recognition throughout the industry.

SankyNet’s IAC awards were for the following clients and categories:

• Best Nonprofit Integrated Ad Campaign – Freedom from Hunger, Summer Survival Series
  A three-part email, landing page and social media awareness campaign focusing on the disparity between families
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• Best Nonprofit Website – Covenant House, Website Redesign
  A visual and functional improvement over the original website, this redesign includes interactive multimedia features, simpler donation form and much more.
• Best Nonprofit Email Message – African Wildlife Foundation, Infographic Email
  A powerful infographic email that explains the African rhino poaching crisis in an easily-digestible, visually stimulating way.

DMFA awards:

• Package of the Year – Covenant House, Quadruple Match
  A campaign featuring the story of a real homeless teen given a second chance, illustrating the need for funds by bringing the issue of teen homelessness to life.
• Runner-up: Package of the Year – African Wildlife Foundation, Betty White Match
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  Betty White, this email series urgently communicated the threat of poaching to Africa’s wildlife population and why action must be taken quickly.

Once again, congratulations to SankyNet and here’s to many more awards in the future! To learn more about SankyNet’s services, visit the website.

p>Steve here! As SankyNet’s new Director of Strategy and Analytics, I wanted to share some noteworthy online fundraising information. Steve MacLaughlin of Blackbaud recently took to Twitter to share a useful and a possibly surprising trend that could have significant implications for your fundraising tactics:

Direct debit monthly donors have the highest retention – higher than credit cards.

So while credit cards are being emphasized, maybe more energy should be focused on this highly overlooked payment method. To clarify, electronic funds transfer (EFT) donations are much more common in Europe, however, its US presence is growing because more large organizations are proactively converting their credit card donors. It’s only a matter of time before other organizations follow suit.

So why is EFT growing in popularity? For the answer consider some of the inherent problems with credit card sustainers:

• Credit cards have a shelf-life
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• Bank sales and mergers often result in changes to credit card data, causing organizations to lose information required to process monthly gifts. The same applies when donors change their addresses and don’t notify the organization.
• Credit card donors are more costly. The credit card “discount rate” charged for each payment can be 3% of the total gift amount, sometimes higher. The cost of processing EFT transactions is often a much smaller per transaction amount.

When organizations don’t have systems in place to meet these challenges, the risks can be costly. EFT has a significantly lower likelihood of causing “unintended attrition” of your monthly donors. The hurdle with EFT, however, is that US donors are generally uncomfortable with sharing back account information, though this seems to be slowly changing.

EFT has a way to go before it becomes mainstream in the US, but it can serve as a valuable safeguard against the challenges with credit cards and remains a lucrative growth opportunity. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, ETF is definitely worth looking into.

One last point – organizations with significant numbers of monthly credit card donors should check with their credit card processor about “Account Updater” services – a tool which helps to keep your donors’ credit data current. While this service can be costly, it’s usually far less than the costs of losing your most valuable donors!

10. Remind them it’s TAX DEDUCTIBLE! We’re still recovering from the Great Recession, so people who would have donated a few years ago may not have as much incentive to donate. Give them one: Remind them about the tax deduction for charitable donations. If you’re on the fence about clicking that “donate” button, aren’t you a little more tempted by the magical words “tax deductible”?

9. Start early, remind often. In today’s multichannel world, donors are inundated with messages from commercial and nonprofit organizations, so they are distracted. They need reminders. Since not everyone is online while your messages are going out, they’re not going to see every update or message, anyway.

8. Don’t neglect email for social media. Yes, social media has been growing and changing at rapid speed this year, but that doesn’t change one simple truth: Email is king when it comes to nonprofit online marketing. It’s been proven time and time again, so don’t fall for the hype. Keep your time and resources behind email.

7. Go ahead – brag a little! Many organizations are too timid when it comes to talking about their accomplishments. Remind your donors that you are the BEST at

what you do. Don’t be shy. Donors like to know that their donations are going to good use.

6. Drive

traffic to your site. You could have the greatest, most beautiful holiday-themed nonprofit website on the planet, but what good is that if nobody sees it? Being on page 15 in Google’s search results is not going to bring in donations. Use your Google Grant, or most importantly, optimize

your website with the right keywords (hint: It’s the holidays) so that people can actually find it and donate.

5. Campaign more aggressively. Sure, your donations will come during the holidays without any extra effort, just because it’s giving season. But don’t waste this opportunity to increase your donations exponentially. Create separate holiday-themed micro sites, emails and social media updates with compelling donation asks.

4. Create a sense of urgency. Everyone knows when the holidays are, but they still need that extra little push when it comes to pulling out their wallets and getting their credit cards. Set a clear deadline for your campaign and publicize it. Saying “Donate by 12/31” or “Donate by Midnight” is far more effective than “Donate Now.” Otherwise, donors may decide they can donate later and likely forget altogether.

3. Segment your email list! This is just like direct mail, folks. You don’t want to over-ask some people and intimidate them, which would keep them from donating. But you don’t want to under-ask others who may be willing to give more. On a different but similar note, think about how your messaging should differ between social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Twitter followers have different behaviors than your Facebook likes do.

2. Get creative. Your nonprofit is not the only one getting ready for the holiday season. Standing out from the crowd is paramount. Use emotional copy and powerful imagery to create a connection with your donors. Consider finding ways to take advantage of the holiday shopping rush with Black Friday and Cyber Monday mini-campaigns. You may also want to look into and participate in the newly created #GivingTuesday, the nonprofit world’s answer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

1. Thank you… Thank you… Thank you. You can’t say it enough. Be aggressive with your campaigns, but don’t forget to cultivate your donors after they give.

The major change is the “cover image” which goes across the top of

the page. This will become the focal point and should be chosen with care. We see a lot of great opportunities to use this for integrated campaigns. For example, a cover image could be a logo for a matching gift campaign or a featured volunteer. Mission-specific images are also becoming very popular.

Early

adopters have seen a bump in engagement, proving that people are responding to the new layout.

Some other notable features

of the timeline are:

• The placement of “tabs” is different and they’ve been renamed “apps”
• The ability to “feature” a story, having it take up both columns of your timeline.
• The timeline allows you to tell the story of your nonprofit’s history. The timeline along the side can go back all the way to its founding, and you can add images and text.

For great examples of pages using these features, check out this list

Got some questions or a response about the new layout? Tweet us at @SankyNet!

Just what advice did Harry have to offer? Here’s eight top tips from the Sanky team of experts:

1. Add Google+ to Your Fundraising Repertoire! Whether you like it or not, you need to start “hanging out” with your donors on Google+. Recent changes in Google’s algorithm make it absolutely vital if you want to achieve high rankings in the world’s #1 search engine.
2. Don’t forget about Bing when you map out your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy. Google commands a high-majority of search traffic – but it isn’t the only game in town.
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3. Don’t just use Facebook to just “like.” Say “thanks” too! Post a public “thank you” to a generous donor on your Facebook page. This has the added power of providing donor recognition in a new channel, while also planting the idea of charitable giving in a casual and appropriate way.
4. Target paid Facebook ads to your own “likes”. Targeting paid ads to your own fans is a direct and effective way to achieve success in (drumroll) fundraising on Facebook! For example, promoting your Matching Gift campaign using this technique can be powerfully successful.
5. Build a Bridge to Monthly Giving with QR Codes. With smart phones now in the hands of more than half of Americans, QR codes can effectively bridge your print material and your online presence. Since they direct to specific web landing pages, QR Codes can be
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6. Think outside the (Light) box! The power of website lightboxes is already being tapped effectively for year-end giving and special campaigns. Now it’s time to strategize about other uses of this potent fundraising technique. For example, think about testing customized lightboxes that activate when an online donor clicks “submit.” You can gratefully thank them for the gift amount selected – but point out the extra impact that a few more dollars would have on your vital programs.
7. Use email metrics to boost your major gift program. Identify a small and manageable group of major donors and prospects … then carefully monitor their open rates and click-throughs to determine which topics interest them and should be leveraged in future communications, appeals, and possibly personal visits.
8. Slow down your email unsubscribe rate. Have the unsubscribe link in your emails direct to a page that offers choices beyond a full opt-out. For example, subscribers could choose opting out of some e-publications or chose less frequency. After working so hard to get email constituents, don’t let them go without a fight!

As the world of digital fundraising transforms at a dizzying pace, we can never do enough to share our best ideas and latest successes so everyone benefits.

to be joined by Eric Muscatell, the Director of Development of amfAR, to present at the 2012 Bridge Conference in Washington,

DC later this summer.

Their August 8th Session, Fact vs. Fiction: What’s New Online that Really Works? will separate the buzz from the reality of what’s working today in digital fundraising, and offer practical suggestions for tapping the power of the latest techniques.

With a wide array of areas covered – from paid Facebook advertising, QR Codes, SEM, mobile fundraising and website techniques, other emerging social platforms – the session is promised to be highly informative as well as entertaining.

For more info about the 2012 Bridge to Integrated Fundraising and Marketing Conference click here:

http://www.bridgeconf.org/site/PageServer