The Struggle to Attract New Donors

April 07, 2008

The Struggle to Attract New Donors

The signs that the economy is starting to hurt charity fund-raising appeals are growing stronger. A new study shows that direct-marketing appeals failed to produce strong results for many charities last year.

Charities did not come close to raising enough to keep up with the 4-percent inflation rate. And in yet another indication that direct mail is not producing the results it once did, the number of new donors attracted by nonprofit solicitations dropped by 5 percent, on top of a 10-percent drop last year.

The economy is a key issue for all fund-raising efforts, but certainly not the only problem facing direct mail in an age of Internet appeals.

Even so, most groups say online appeals and other efforts still don’t bring in anything close to the amount of money direct mail produces. As a result, many groups are spending heavily both on direct mail and new experiments with Internet appeals, face-to-face solicitations, and other approaches so they can figure out the best ways to attract new supporters, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports in its most recent cover article.

What is your organization doing to attract new donors? Tell us what is working best for you — and what approaches your organization no longer pursues. Click on the comment link below to share your thoughts.

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