Design Fundraising Envelopes that Keep Your Fundraising Letters Out of the Recycling Bin
Imagine this sad scenario—your donor checks the mail, takes one look at the envelope containing your fundraising letter, and tosses it into the recycling bin unopened. Ouch.
You’ve worked hard at creating the perfect fundraising package. You’ve considered every element carefully, used donor segmentation to focus in on constituent groups, written the perfect copy, and designed the best reply card.
The design of your outer envelope is an important aspect of your fundraising mailing. You can’t receive a donation from your potential donor if they don’t open your envelope.
So how do you ensure that your appeal letter doesn’t get tossed but instead, as Tom Ahern says, gets “ripped open with as much anticipation as possible?”
Don’t be mistaken for junk mail or advertising
To stand out in a sea of mail, nonprofit organizations often try to differentiate themselves by including a photo or tagline in their fundraising envelope design. This sounds great in theory, but it can actually backfire.
Jeff Brooks noted that “in direct testing, an envelope with no image and no teaser outperforms one with a teaser about 75 percent of the time.”¹
In Mal Warwick's book on testing fundraising direct mail², he reports A/B test results on the use of taglines. In one test, the tagline had no discernible impact, while in another test, it depressed the response rate by 65%.
In other words, don’t assume that a teaser on the outer envelope will improve results. Proceed with caution!
After all, the USPS reports in their 2020-2021 Generational Study³ that Baby Boomers read 77% of the nonprofit direct mail they receive. Surprised it is so high? Then get this: Gen X reads 76% and Millennials read 78% of the non-profit direct mail they receive (Gen Z was not reported).
Those who have already given to your non-profit have made an investment they want to keep informed about. For them, it is enough to see the letter is from your organization to want to open and read it; there is already a personal connection.
It is the same reason that email opening rates by previous donors are in the 30-35% range or even higher—double to triple the open rate of emails from for-profit advertisers.
Getting the letter opened is not the main job of the envelope. It is the beginning of the engagement journey.
As we show later in this post, adding a (digitized) handwritten signature from the sender above the return address is already moving the letter from ‘solicitation’ to ‘personal message’. That’s one reason why a tagline is risky; it can reduce the ‘personal message’ feel.
In fact, the more plain your fundraising appeal envelope—just the logo, return address and digitized signature— the more the donor will perceive that its contents are personal and the greater chance they will open it with anticipation.
For donor newsletter and impact reports, which by nature aren’t personal communications, put them in a 6 x 9 envelope and add the following to the outside “Your donor impact report is enclosed”. That envelope will now stand out among everything else in the mailbox as important reading.
But, as we all know, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. If you have a photo that can truly evoke a unique, targeted emotional reaction in your recipient, test it! Think about identity, concern, compassion—these are the emotions that inspire action.
Take a look at this example:
The average person would see a picture of an unrecognizable and dilapidated house, assume it didn’t relate to them, and probably toss it.
On the other hand, a Dartmouth alumnus—who stayed in this very cabin and has a strong emotional connection to the photo—is going to open this envelope right away.
Don’t scare people off by overtly announcing your mail piece as a solicitation
Slap a bad teaser or tagline on your fundraising envelope and it might as well read, “We’re asking you for money!” In this instance, the tagline can actually hurt your response rates and speed up your appeal letter’s trip to the recycling bin.
Jerry Huntsinger makes a great point in his tutorial: “The problem is that a teaser is a dead giveaway that your mailing is promotional material. And teaser copy puts you into a shouting match with the other pieces of mail.”
There are, however, a handful of “Goldilocks” moments for a tagline—when using one can be just right. Professor Siegfried Vogele says that, “if you are presenting a solution to a problem for the target audience, they will want to read what you have to say.”⁴
If there is urgency, an emergency or a time-sensitive matching gift opportunity, let it be known through your tagline. Offer the donor a benefit or ask a question that can only be revealed by opening the envelope.
Five Maples says switch up your fundraising envelope!
You could research appealing envelope designs for hours (trust us, we have!) and discover a thousand dos and don’ts, with equally as many exceptions. Here are a few things with which to experiment—not every time and not all at once—to see what works best to get your letter opened.
A handwritten signature or typed named and title of the letter signer above the return address block: It can increase familiarity and give a personal feel.
An invitation-style envelope: It’s never a bad idea to mix up your appeal package size. The donor will never think “I’ve already received this one”. An invitation-size fundraising envelope feels more intimate.
Handwriting font for the address: This could pique interest—bills don’t come with a blue handwritten address.
When it comes down to it, no one knows your organization and your donors like you do. Use your best judgement—stay true to yourself and true to your donors. And, most importantly, when it doubt, leave it out—or get in touch with Five Maples for design support!
1 Brooks, Jeff. 2017. The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications: real-World Field-Tested Strategies for Raising More Money. Medfield, MA: Emerson & Church, Publishers.
2 Warwick, Mal, Testing, Testing, 1,2,3: Raise More Money with Direct Mail Tests, Jossey-Bass, 2003.
3 From the USPS 2020-2021 Generational Research Report
4 Vogele, Siegfried. 1992. Handbook of Direct Mail: The Dialogue Method of Direct Written Sales Communication. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International Ltd.
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