What could you change in your letter to make people want to give you more money for your cause?
TONS of things! For example. Headlines.
Did you know that putting a headline on each page of your appeal letter makes it much more likely to be read?
Did you know that putting a picture and the donor’s name on each page helps the reader’s eye stop and continue with your letter, even if they’re tempted to skip over whole paragraphs?
Did you know that I got DOUBLE the return with a small, all-volunteer nonprofit in Texas with my second appeal letter for them, using these methods?
It’s true.
So if you don’t know where to begin looking for these grand controls, where do you go?
Have you ever heard of the Who’s Mailing What Database?
You may have heard me praise the DMIQTV crew before. DMIQTV stands for Direct Mail IQ TV.
Every month or so, the DMIQTV team get together and pick out some fun nonprofit mail from their Who’s Mailing What Archive, and sit around and discuss what the top nonprofit mailers are doing with their grand control letters.
What’s a grand control letter?
It’s a letter that big nonprofits mail out over and over again because it works so well.
If you’re working at a small nonprofit, why would you care what a big nonprofit does with their grand control?
Because if you look at the grand controls of big nonprofits, you’ll see the culmination of a LOT of work on the part of teams and teams of nonprofit development professionals, or possibly even writing teams from hot-shot advertising agencies. They rigorously test the pictures, the font, the layout, the envelope, the stamp or indicia, the enclosure, the remit envelope, the premium, EVERYTHING in hopes to make their donors give.
Since most of us in tiny nonprofit shops do not have time to do that, or the sophisticated machinery that makes it possible for the big guys, the best thing we can do is learn from what they do, and then apply what they do to our own nonprofits.
I recently spoke with Paul Bobnak of Who’s Mailing What, and he graciously allowed me to go into the archives and check out what this database looks like!
It IS Extensive. It’s not just for nonprofits but for businesses too. however, there’s definitely TONS of nonprofit mailers to check out!
So, here’s the Search page: The Direct Mail categories for nonprofits are: 571,576,580, 600.
And after you login:
This is JUST ONE of the many screens. You can arrange the results by:
Acquisition Mailing
Membership Renewal Mailings
Control
Grand Control (has been used for 3 years or more)
Type of nonprofit, I saw Jewish museums, Wolf Trap Foundation, Newark Museum, AARP, Ballet Arizona, NYC Opera, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Orchestras, Symphony Space, San Diego Zoo, and even The Museum of Tolerance.
If you’re not sure if this mailing would be for you, you can click on the little number next to the name of the nonprofit, and it will take you to this screen:
If you want to learn how to get more money in the mail, I’m giving a webinar on How to Write a Stunning Direct Mail Appeal Piece by Piece on October 3rd. Learn more here.