Canadian Food Bank Doubles Direct Mail Efforts

Canada's Mississauga Food Bank plans to double its direct mail campaigns to supplement online fundraising.

The nonprofit, based outside Toronto, raised about $30,000 annually on the web, says Meghan Nicholls, director of marketing and fund development. At least four direct mail campaigns are planned for 2012.

In past years, Mississauga mailed twice a year, with less than stellar results. For example, mailing last Christmas to its 2,600 mail donors yielded response rates of more than 8% but only brought in $16,000.

“It was not a bad rate but the amount of money coming in relative to the cost was starting us questioning the return on investment,” Nicholls says.

The food bank decided to increase its mailings because direct mail has a track record for bringing in nonprofit donations. Nicholls thinks this new approach will make its fundraising efforts more successful.

The majority of the new mailings will focus on the period between Canada's Thanksgiving celebration in October and Christmas.

The food bank doesn't collect much demographic information about its donors and prospects, who are typically from the local area and over age 40; online donors tend to skew a bit younger.

Mississauga Food Bank's mailing pieces generally contain a mail-in buckslip, a business reply envelope, a letter and a link for online donations. The latest package also features a paper placemat that donors could either return with a contribution or give to their children to color.

“It really promotes the fact that we feed kids,” she says. “There are over 16,000 kids in Mississauga who are getting food from the food bank every month and people get a chance to connect with them on an emotional level.”

The organization has an opt-in email file of nearly 5,000 names. The charity sends three appeals per year to this list and sends members a monthly enewsletter to keep them abreast of food bank activities.

In terms of social media, the food bank has more than 1,100 followers on Facebook the charity uses for advocacy and to promote events and develop conversations with constituents.

“We have done some contests as well to motivate people to connect with us, asking people to send e-cards to friends of theirs for a chance to win a tablet,” she notes. ‘It helps us to increase our reach.”

Nevertheless, the food bank tried and later abandoned efforts to solicit donations on Facebook.  “For a while people could donate on Facebook but, not now,” she says. “We’re trying to see what people respond best to on Facebook.”As recently as three years ago, the organization did not use direct mail at all, relying largely on events and corporate donations.

“We have decided to use direct mail as we are moving our focus away from just events and corporate relationships and towards individual donors, and direct mail is a proven method of soliciting individuals,” Nicholls says.