Week Six

Day 9: Monday June 10th - 9am to 4:30pm

This Monday was a bit of a slow day with both Stephanie and Ellen out of the office. I did, however, get my first real experience working with DonorPro. I got to enter in the new members and then create a postcard for them. I printed out the post cards, addressed them, and used the postage machine to get them ready to mail. You can see a video of this in the post right below this one. I had a good time learning how to use the machine. 

Day 10: Wednesday June 12th - 9am to 5pm

This day was quite a bit more exciting than Monday. We got a lot of membership research done in the morning and after lunch, but what was much more eventful was the Nathan's Famous Hotdog Eating Contest. Maggie (the CEO) told us we should go and then Ellen asked us to go take pictures. So, Stephanie and I were off to go watch people eat dozens of hotdogs in under ten minutes. In case you didn't know, the YWCA owns the Nathans on the corner of 3rd and Wood, so they were a big part of the event. 

They chose a male and female winner, but the two actually tied. Maggie held the sign saying how many hotdogs the female winner ate (30), so I got some really great pictures of the two of them. (I'll add these in when I get on a YW computer). 

A big portion of our afternoon was spent with Ellen giving us a lesson about solicitations and direct mail. There is quite a list of things that she told us. 

Keep direct mail solicitations. Use your own reactions. What do you open? 

Different Tactics:

• Envelope color 
• Size
• Blank envelopes 
• Return address labels 
• Personalize
• Gift catalog
• Green organizations cutting down on paper
• Call to action on envelope 

                   - Let people know what you want them to do
                   - Use verbs at beginning of sentence

• Color blocking
• Including envelopes for sending to friends

Rules to live by:

• Small paragraphs are best
• No long letters
• 1st sentence, bullet points, and the P.S. get read
• Callouts and bolded words as well 
• "Big" signatures help (pad timeline by 2 months)
• Use an appeal code to track responses  
• Segment appeal codes by donation levels
• Design for your target audience
• Tell them what, when, why and how

Expected level of response

• Highest level donors - 80% - 90%
• Lower level donors - much lower
• Cold call/purchased list - 1% to 2%

Fun Facts by Ellen:
These are the most important tips Ellen gave to writing a successful solicitation. 

• Give people an entry point. Open the doors for people to connect. "They give to the American Heart Association because their father died from a heart attack. People give to people, not organizations. They never will."
• Connect to the person on the other side of the letter
• Appeal on benefits not needs
• Strong 1st sentence
• Use "you"