How to ask your donors for €10,000 in the mail… and get it.

You probably have that nagging feeling from time to time that lurking amongst your run-of-the-mill donors are a handful of folk with lots and lots and lots of money who are dutifully writing cheques for €75 in response to your appeals. You may have profiled your database and done your prospect research, but that feeling won’t go away. Hiding in there somewhere are some quiet, low profile wealthy people who you just know could be giving you so much more.

Like many non profits who have received a lot of statutory funding in the past, the current downturn hasn’t been kind to Women’s Aid. Cutbacks meant that income was down by 10% this year, putting vital services in jeopardy. We decided to get an emergency appeal out to donors, asking for a special gift to help cover the cost of their National Freephone Helpline. We employed the usual tactics – linking ask amounts to previous gifts, including a prompt for a higher value gifts, making it as warm and personal and urgent as possible. Here’s the donation form:

But given the dire need, we also included a note from the Director which re-stated that they were expecting a shortfall of €65,000 this year and expressing the hope that somewhere amongst their supporters there were individuals who could help cover this shortfall with gifts of €10,000.

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It went on:

If you think you could be one of these people, or if you know someone else who may be able to help us, please contact me on my direct line here at Women’s Aid, which is…

Our hope was that this would give a significant lift to the average gift and maybe, just maybe, turn up a €10k donor. Less than a week into the campaign the response has been fantastic, way ahead of expectations, and, to our delight, one supporter wrote a cheque for €10,000. A big thank you to them.

So, a successful solicitation of €10,000 using direct mail. Obviously the context of a crisis appeal is very relevant here, with a very clear, urgent and tangible need. But by using the extra note to seek out big gifts it turned what may have been a typical direct mail gift into a major donation.

You can make a donation to Women’s Aid here