How a Nonprofit Focused on Delivering Meals to Seniors Built Advocates and Grew Its Donor Base Through Direct Mail Acquisition

Challenge

A nonprofit that delivers meals to seniors used traditional direct mail acquisition to reach potential donors. The organization wanted to seek advocates as well.

Solution

TrueSense Marketing recommended testing a new, simple direct mail package that included a petition against a standard control package. The test package included a call to action to ask donors to support the organization by signing a petition, and it explained how government funding does not cover all of the needs in its community.

Results

This new direct mail acquisition strategy with a strong advocacy element outperformed the control in almost every category. The Petition Acquisition Package had a 49% higher response rate than the control package. The ROI was up 43%, while average gifts remained the same and the cost to acquire went down 33%. The response rate increased 49%.