yeah, I'm going to use a small shop. Because in Canada, in the US, there's a an overwhelming majority of sort of the nonprofit sector are small shops. And it is possible, there's this common belief out there that you have to have at least 15,000 names, or at least 20,000 names on your file for direct mail to work. But this can absolutely work for you if you're listening and you have a small donor file. So one of our clients, inner city youth alive, they work with young people in in our cities, North End, every city kind of has a north end. For us, it's called the north end of the cities. You know, it's a it's a neighborhood where where years of underinvestment have created families who are living in in sometimes pretty desperate situations at times, and inner cities alive is right in a neighborhood. So many of their staff actually moved into the neighborhood, they live there. And they've got a smallish donor base, and they have two 3000 names on file. And many of those, by the time we started working with them weren't necessarily active, they just had over the years over their 20 year 30 year history that just sort of built this file. And in about 12 to 14 months, they almost doubled their giving, from individual giving, using a very simple direct mail strategy, and you go on Instagram, you post about the work, you see which part of the work gets a lot of engagement. Okay, that might be a great offer, because people Instagram have already told you that, that they think that that's interesting, right? So this doesn't have to be fancy, you don't have to do a lot of testing, you know, you can just like, look at what you're doing already. What are people interested in that might be a good offer. And so we started working with them with a very, very simple rhythm. It is every quarter of the year. So four times a year, there's a direct mail appeal, then there is a really good, thank you that follows up personal thank you to the people who gave. And then there's a newsletter, that is in a report back on what the appeal was about. And then you've earned the right to ask again. So very simple, small shop strategy. And some of the appeals we ran for them was they wanted to buy a building down the street from them and start a construction business. Because a lot of youth in their program, when you ask them, What do you want to be when you grew up, they said, I want to be a social worker, or I want to be a police officer. And they started realizing that's the only two professions they know those are the people that they interact with. That's why they want to be a social worker, or a police officer. And youth with lots of talents and skills that just haven't had the chance necessarily find them or develop them or even so they start this business to teach youth construction skills where they're going to buy houses in the neighborhood, they're going to renovate them, they're going to decorate them, they're going to flip them, and they're going to flip them at a price that is very affordable for families in that neighborhood. Right. So really beautiful, sort of closing the circle. And so we did a campaign where we took the listing of this place. We sent it to donors, we said, this is the list price. Here's the listing. Here's the blueprints that we've come up with, with how we're going to turn this into this construction shop. Here's all the tools we're going to need. Here's the two trucks we'll need. Here's the leader that's going to lead the program who's a graduate from our program, and he shared his testimony of how this is time to give back. So that's a really, it's not complicated. Anybody can do this. You just got to think differently about it. And just overwhelming response from donors. Right, yeah, I'll help you by that building. Of course, I will, like I'll do everything I can in my power to help you do that, that direct mailer also surfaced mid level donors. And it surfaced major donors, because oftentimes what happens is the $100 donor in your file might be $100,000 donor in another file. But you've only asked them for the annual fund gift of $100, once a year. So that's what they've given you. So you can also use direct mail to surface higher gifts. It doesn't just have to be about the low level gifts. Another appeal we ran for them was during COVID. They started running because they reach to run a meal program, all of a sudden, there's lockdowns, you're not supposed to have people in your. So they started running cooking classes via zoom, where they prepared a food kit that the kids could pick up, they could take it home, log on to zoom, and then they would all cook a meal together. And also the parents could be part of it. And also learn how to cook that way. Now, that's a great appeal. You just turn it into, hey, we're running. Here, we're running these COVID cooking classes. This is how much the food kit cost. Here's a list of all the items in the kit. Flour is this much chicken is this much just price it all out, send donors a price list a checklist and say, here's what we need to purchase for the food kits. And by the way, do you want to join a COVID cooking class? Like, let us know because you know, maybe you can be part of this thing.
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