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Stephen Mally appeal, Charitable, Charitable organisation, Charity, Christmas appeal, CRM, Data, Direct marketing lists, Donations, FundraisingForce, Salvation Army, segmentation

The first charity Christmas appeal received from….

It’s something I report on each year via the FundraisingForce blog. The first charity Christmas appeal was received from…The Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army has been the first for the past several years.

I’ve talked about the need for a charitable organisation to stand out in the letterbox in several past FundraisingForce blog posts. It’s really the key to successful direct mail. Your piece has to stand out amongst all the postal mail one receives. If the letter does not get opened, it is not going to get a response.

Salvation Army stood out in my letterbox because it arrived in early October and it was the first charitable organisation to send me their Christmas appeal! The organisation also stood out amongst my other mail because of the the art on the package.

As in the past, the appeal is a Christmas Wish catalogue, which is full of items I can purchase to change the lives of those Salvation Army supports. Once purchased, I will receive a gift card and envelope to give to a person on my list to share the joy of giving. A simple concept and something that stood out in my letterbox the beginning of October.

Many charitable organisations likely do not have their segmented direct marketing lists prepared and sent to their mailing house. Some may still be working on the letter copy, package content, and various approvals that go with the task. Where is your non-profit organisation in the process? Is the data pull and the segmentation all a little too hard in your CRM? It does not have to be. Hire experts like FundraisingForce to properly segment your data and to create that segmentation inside your CRM. Once set up, this segmentation may be tweaked and pulled for appeals in the future.

Don’t delay setting up your segmentation for your Christmas appeal because it is too difficult, too time consuming, or something you do not have knowledge to do. Let’s get the data ready so you can get the appeal in the mail and then you’ll be able to focus your time on other tasks – like assisting in the processing of the donations and the receipts!