Oakville Public Library’s Direct Mail Success
(Originally from SIGNAL, Spring 2001)

In the fall of 2000, Oakville Public Library (OPL) launched its first-ever annual appeal to the community. This campaign was preceded by months of planning by Cynthia Ball, then Manager of Development at OPL, and her staff and volunteers, as well as the assistant of a direct mail consultant. It took a team effort to plan the first foray into the community to solicit support. They wanted to make sure it was well handled.

In developing the fundraising program, OPL had also invested in a donor management software program. This is a relational database that enables the library to effectively manage the responses to the direct mail program. Direct mail is a continuous process that requires attention to detail, tracking many elements, and meticulous record-keeping, and a fundraising software program is an essential tool to enable this.

Cynthia selected a mail program as a good fundraising activity to launch the OPL annual campaign because it is one of the best ways to acquire donors. Since the library had never undertaken strategic fundraising before, launching a mail program was an effective way to start.

These are some general aspects of direct mail programs that make them a good starting point:

• they are a good way to begin the donor relationship, providing the opportunity for lots of information to be conveyed to prospective donors;
• they are a good way to get lots of small donations – the average gift for direct mail tends to be around $30; and,
• of those who will respond to mail solicitation, most will give as often as they are asked.

Mail campaigns are an investment in the long term, and often take a number of mailings to pay for themselves. Typical response rates from mailings could be as little as 1 or 2%.

Cost-effective direct mail programs are dependent on volume, although you can start small and grow. Successful large-scale campaigns used by health and social service charities have mass appeal and high level of general public awareness. In these cases, the costs of creating the mailing is offset by the volume of mail, and the small percentage of responses can still result in a substantial dollar return.

Establishing a mail program can take a couple of years until a stable list of reliable annual donors is developed. However, you can expect an annual attrition rate of up to 25% of these donors. And acquisition of new donors through prospect mailings can be an expensive endeavour.

Oakville worked with a consultant to develop the mail package and brochure. This is a good idea for any library beginning a mail program. Direct mail is very common, which also means it’s very competitive. Experience in mail programs is important when making your first approach to prospective donors – there is a science about it. Communicating library messages to your donors through direct mail campaigns requires thoughtful development, and should reflect your organizational vision and culture.

One of the key objectives of Oakville’s mail was to promote a monthly giving option. There are many benefits to establishing a monthly giving program. Monthly giving has proven to increase the size of donations, and decrease donor attrition. Since most monthly giving is done by credit card, this method of donating has many benefits, such as consistency and assurance in cashflow. There is also the tendency to give more by credit card than by personal cheques.

The mailing list was gleaned from frequent users of the library and a small list of past donors. The list also included Board members, volunteers, City employees, key prospects and some suppliers and local businesses. The total mailing was around 2,200 pieces. The package consisted of a cover letter, reply coupon, brochure and bookmark.

Also, brochures were distributed through counter displays at the branch circulation desks. This was a key element of the campaign strategy to help get the message out to the community that the library was now starting to solicit community support. It also provided a way for library staff to be actively involved in the campaign. It was intended to be a rewarding experience for them by getting positive feedback from the community about the importance of their work.

The mail dropped the week of Oct 25th. In the first 10 days, the library received 96 responses totaling over $6,000 – already 4%, and an average gift of $62.50 – well above industry standards. By the end of the year, there were 281 responses, totaling $18,400, and 5 donors had registered for the monthly-giving option. The average gift was $65.48. The response rate on the mail packages was around 13% - an incredible rate of return for a first mailing – and responses were still being processed into the new year.

On the response coupon, Oakville PL gave the donors a few options as to where their gift could be used. As we saw with London PL’s responses a couple of years ago (see Signal article on London PL’s mail program results), most donors are content to let the library decide the most urgent need for funds. Oakville gave the options of endowment (10% of donors), talking books (3%), Reach Out and Read children’s program (14%) and to meet current needs (73%). Those unrestricted gifts will allow Oakville PL to direct the funds where they feel will do the most good.

Next steps for Oakville, now that they’ve got one mailing out and has been such a success, may include telephone follow up to those who have not yet responded. This is a very cost-effective way to increase response rates. They could do a small reminder mailing to those who haven’t responded, but that would increase their campaign costs. If Oakville were able to train volunteers – maybe their Friends group or some Board members – to make calls, their response rate would climb dramatically. The calls would also help in other areas such as correcting address information and donor stewardship.

Of course the immediate next step is getting thank you letters and charitable receipts out for all the donations that they’ve received. The campaign plan established how donors would be thanked, recognized and rewarded for their support. You cannot only think about that once the first cheque arrives – this is too late for any kind of meaningful relationship building program to be developed.

Once you have established the relationship with donors, you need to keep feeding it. Donors always appreciate program information and news updates. We should not fall into the trap of our stakeholders only hearing from us when we need money! The first gift is just the beginning of the relationship. Oakville hopes to convert many of those first time gifts into long-term annual donors, and intends to feature the monthly giving option in their ongoing communications.

We’ll be watching with interest as Oakville develops this program.