Nonprofit & Public Sector / Nonprofit & Fundraising Campaigns
Fundraising marketing: the appeal letter, the ads beside it, the text paired with it
Fundraising marketing from MBI is donor-acquisition work for a charity: the appeal letter and envelope, the Facebook advertising co-targeted alongside that mail, the personalized peer-to-peer text paired with the same appeal, and the printing, planned and produced by one team.
Not sure where to start? Talk with our teamFundraising marketing
What is fundraising marketing for a charity?
The short answer
Fundraising marketing for a charity is donor-acquisition work: a mailed appeal, the Facebook advertising co-targeted with it, and a personalized peer-to-peer text paired with the same appeal. In nonprofit fundraising, direct mail is identified as a major donor-acquisition and fundraising channel, and MBI plans, prints and mails that appeal itself.
The documented channel. Nonprofit fundraising sources identify direct mail as a major donor-acquisition and fundraising channel, and experimental and case-study sources document mail fundraising campaigns.
All three attach to one act. All three researched campaigns attach to the same act: a direct-mail donor-acquisition appeal, a Facebook-plus-direct-mail donor-acquisition reinforcement campaign, and a personalized peer-to-peer text paired with a direct-mail donor-acquisition campaign.
One appeal, three carriers
Direct mail
How does nonprofit direct mail fundraising get an appeal written, printed and mailed?
The short answer
The appeal is a letter and an envelope. MBI selects the households, designs and writes the letter, prints both pieces in house and mails them, so one team answers for the list, the print and the drop. Data, print and delivery have been in-house since 1989.
One team. MBI is one company that plans, produces, and delivers direct mail, print and digital campaigns from a single team in DeLand, Florida, and data, print, and delivery have been in-house since 1989.
USPS states that not every organization with nonprofit standing may mail at Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail prices, and lists agricultural, educational, fraternal, labor, philanthropic, religious, scientific and veterans organizations and some political committees among the types that may qualify, while business leagues, chambers of commerce, social and hobby clubs and certain political organizations usually are not eligible; individuals are not eligible for nonprofit prices, and there are restrictions on the amount and kind of advertising that may be mailed at those prices.
USPS, Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail qualifications
Mailer · Direct Mail
The appeal
The households
Who receives donor acquisition direct mail?
The short answer
Households that are not on the donor file yet. The list is defined before the drop and then updated against the postal file: USPS requires each address in a mailing at USPS Marketing Mail prices to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date, with mail bearing an alternative address format excepted.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and the National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink).
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5
Postcard · Direct Mail
Facebook and Instagram
Where do charity Facebook ads sit beside the appeal?
The short answer
Beside the appeal rather than instead of it. One nonprofit experiment ran Facebook ad co-targeting alongside a direct-mail acquisition campaign, so MBI can build the ad set against the same audience the appeal is mailed to. Treat it as case evidence rather than a universal practice.
What is on record. A nonprofit experiment report documents Facebook ad co-targeting alongside a direct-mail acquisition campaign, and the brief directs that this be treated as case or experiment evidence rather than a universal practice.
Meta's advertising standards state that when advertisers place an order, each ad is reviewed against Meta's policies, that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices, including those meant to scam people out of money or personal information.
Meta, Advertising Standards
digital advertising services direct mail and digital marketing
Meta ad · Facebook
Meta carousel · Facebook
Peer-to-peer text
Who sends a peer to peer text fundraising message?
The short answer
Peer to peer means person to person: a personalized peer-to-peer text reads as one person writing to another rather than as a broadcast. It is paired with the direct-mail donor-acquisition campaign, and one nonprofit case pairs that text with a phone-and-mail acquisition effort. Sending it requires a lawful contact basis and opt-out handling.
The case on record. A nonprofit case study documents personalized peer-to-peer text paired with a phone-and-mail acquisition effort.
What sending it requires. Use of peer-to-peer text in this vertical requires a lawful contact basis and opt-out handling.
CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that message senders should support opt-in mechanisms and that messages should be sent only after the consumer has opted in to receive them, and list entering a telephone number through a website, clicking a button on a mobile webpage, initiating the text message exchange in which the message sender replies to the consumer only with responsive information, and signing up at a point-of-sale or other message-sender on-site location among the mechanisms by which a consumer might demonstrate opt-in consent; they also state that message senders should not use opt-in lists that have been rented, sold or shared and should create and vet their own opt-in lists, that consumers should be able to opt out at any time through multiple mechanisms, and that senders should acknowledge and honor all opt-out requests with one final opt-out confirmation message per campaign.
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, §§5.1.2–5.1.4
digital advertising services direct mail and digital marketing
SMS
Kit · Printing
Person to person
Printing
What comes off the press for an appeal mailing?
The short answer
Fundraising appeal letters and envelopes. MBI's printing is commercial and variable-data printing produced in house, so the letter and the envelope carrying it are produced together rather than bought from two suppliers, and the drop date is answered by the same team that prints them.
The formats. Fundraising appeal letters and envelopes.
In house. Printing at MBI is commercial and variable-data printing produced in house.
One-sheet · Printing
Kit · Printing
Questions
Questions a charity asks before it mails an appeal
Searched for charity marketing, fundraising marketing agency or charity fundraising agency? Same work, same answers.
Which campaign does MBI build first for a charity?
A direct-mail donor-acquisition appeal — one list, one letter, one ask. The Facebook reinforcement campaign and the personalized peer-to-peer text are both paired with that appeal, so MBI plans and prints the mail first, then builds the other two around the same drop.
How does the appeal list stay accurate between sign-off and the drop?
Every address is updated against the postal file before the appeal letters go out. USPS requires each address in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices, or USPS Marketing Mail prices, to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date by an approved method such as NCOALink; mail using an alternative address format is excepted.
Can Facebook ads run at the same time as a mail appeal?
One nonprofit experiment ran Facebook ad co-targeting alongside a direct-mail acquisition campaign, and MBI can build the ad set against the same audience the appeal is mailed to, so a household meets both. That is one experiment rather than a universal practice.
What happens to a charity's ad before it runs?
Meta reviews it. Meta's advertising standards state that when advertisers place an order, each ad is reviewed against Meta's policies, that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices.
Which supporters can receive a fundraising text?
The ones a charity may lawfully contact: peer-to-peer texting requires a lawful contact basis and opt-out handling. Under CTIA's messaging principles a message should go out only after the consumer has opted in, and an opt-in list that was rented, sold or shared is not one a sender should use.
What does a fundraising appeal letter cost to print and mail?
A fundraising appeal letter has no list price: producing the letter and its envelope and mailing them are the two costs every quote resolves to, and seven decisions move those two numbers, among them quantity, paper and weight, data and personalization, and postage, mail class, and sortation. All seven are laid out at /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost.
What is printed for an acquisition appeal, and what carries it?
Two pieces: the fundraising appeal letter, and the envelope it travels in. MBI's printing is commercial and variable-data printing produced in house, so the letter a charity approves is the letter that goes into that envelope and into the post, rather than two suppliers' work meeting at a mailing house.
Get started
Start a fundraising campaign.
Say which appeal it is, and the households it should reach. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.