CBA: Cooperative Fundraising, Sharing Costs and Ideas Can Generate Big Dollars

The saying that there's strength in numbers rings true for nonprofits that need to raise funds through direct marketing and can't afford to do it alone. Small and medium-sized organizations -- as well as chapters of large national organizations -- can get in the mail. They just have to work collaboratively.

The high costs of developing your own direct mail package and printing small quantities can be discouraging. You see all the fancy personalized mailers, like special surveys, certificates, invitations and so on, but for you they're out of financial reach. And, it's a serious disadvantage when competitive fundraising appeals hog the mailbox. The well-known names could force your appeal to the bottom of the pile or, even worse, into the circular file before your message is read.

Most fundraisers have accumulated prospect files over the years from special exhibits, galas and retail traffic, such as museum- and library-goers. These may be productive names for events, but the lists are usually old and they're not responsive to mail appeals.

The best direct mail fundraising prospects are those who have responded by mail to a request for gifts, a magazine subscription offer or an invitation to become a member of an organization.

Your best prospects will be found on other lists like yours. List owners will rent them to you or exchange with you on a name-for-name basis, if you have donors. You can try going directly to the list owner or use a list broker, a professional who provides a vital service to commercial and nonprofit mailers.

Here's the problem: The number of names available in your geographic area may not meet the minimum quantity the list owner requires to select and run names on the computer, usually 5,000 to 10,000 names.

You can form a consortium that will have the clout to rent and/or exchange names and meet the minimums required. Soon you will be able to negotiate discounts on the price of lists as your volume grows. Often you can make a deal for a discount of up to 15 percent on the names that are found to be duplicates on other lists you order.

A consortium can give you the leverage in buying printing and mailing services that you can't get as a small individual mailer. The group marketing concept will also give you back the time to do your original job -- going after the big fish for major gifts.

You can form a consortium with the help of professionals who practice group marketing or you can plan it with fellow organizations that have common interests, and a common product or service.

Among the candidates for co-ops are symphonies, museums, dance companies (and other arts organizations), libraries, public television stations, humane societies, hospitals and social service agencies.

Public television stations have been working in consortia for over 25 years. This year the first National Direct Mail Consortium for City and Regional Public Libraries was organized and will drop its first 250,000 cooperative mailing in January, 1999.

The Nature Conservancy has organized a Cooperative Chapter Appeal Program (CCAP) that is relieving individual chapter executives from preparing and mailing special appeals to their donors -- freeing them up to go after major gift donors and to handle other management responsibilities.

The first step is to interest others like yourself in the co-op idea, by promoting it to your associates. If your group has a national conference, that can be an excellent opportunity to organize and sign up participants.

Try to get your subject on the conference program. Show examples of other groups' successful cooperative programs and mailings and ask members of a working consortium to address the Conference.

Prospective participants will want to know the costs of group mailings; with anticipated quantities from them and their geographical mailing areas, the company or committee designated to run the consortium can prepare rough costs per piece estimates based on total campaign mail volume.

If your national conference is a ways off, and you work for a chapter of a national organization, call the executive director of the national office, and try to enlist help in finding other chapters. Start by asking the executive director to put out a statement or request, asking if there is interest from any chapters in setting up a consortium.

It would be even better if the organization itself would issue a document expressing the same interest, signed by the executive director.

Another method would be to get the list of all other chapters and practice your direct marketing skills by putting together a mailing, asking chapters if they are interested. If you get two or three responses, you've got a co-op.

The next step is to put them together on a conference call and begin to talk about what your creative concepts might be, when you want to mail, and what type of mailing you would like to do.

If you are looking outside a national group, find colleagues with experience in creating and producing successful fundraising mailings.

Then, form a cooperative committee and agree on a leader who can chair meetings. The committee will set policy, decide on timing and creative issues.

There may be some larger organizations in your industry that conduct direct response fundraising successfully on their own. Convince them that they're better off as part of the group. Offer them a leadership spot on the cooperative committee.

Two of the first group decisions will be the format of the direct mail package and its basic message. And, there are two things that you'll need for a consortium package:

A universal design and format so all packages can be produced simultaneously to achieve production savings and;
Flexibility to accommodate the local identity and description of the chapter or organization and its products or services.

Packages prepared for public television mailings, The Nature Conservancy and the library consortium share universal themes, plus descriptions of programs and services that local recipients of the mail can relate to and support. Public television packages describe support for common national programming, but they all have their local programs and special outreach services.

The Nature Conservancy is dedicated to preserving endangered land and species, keeping the nation's landscapes, waterways and ecosystems vibrant and intact. The universal theme for the launch of the first cooperative effort is "Together We Can Save The Last Great Places..." the localization is "...in Missouri, in Florida, in Colorado," and in 16 other chapters.

The message in the library consortium acquisition campaign covers the acquisition and preservation of books and other reference material, changing technology, literacy, special programs for senior citizens and latch-key children -- but each has its own unique services and programs.

Although there is no set creative formula for cooperative direct mail fundraising, the following has proven to be a workable format:

Carrier envelope containing a universal or local tag line (or no tagline)
Letter with a common theme and personalized paragraphs for local material. Public television and library letters are preprinted, while The Nature Conservancy letters are lasered for current donors. The decision is based on the nature of the campaign and budget.
Folder that emphasizes the main theme with space devoted to the individual organization's programs and events.
Reply envelopes are basic, but local messages can be printed.

Whatever formula a co-op adopts, there must be room for flexibility. A cookie cutter-type promotion will discourage participants and prospective donors.

The real advantages of working together is that you can buy national lists and still target individual co-op participants' geographical mailing areas. Of course, the individual mailing areas have to be translated into sectional center facility (SCFs) or ZIP codes, so the list broker can request names for all participants as one list order.

The list broker obtains the counts of names on the selected lists available for every participant. This is how a national list plan is built and how the size of each participant's mailing is determined.

The lists recommended for the first co-op mailing should be considered tests. The next time you mail, you'll know which lists to repeat.

Scheduling is a critical element in producing a cooperative mailing and getting it out on time. Talk to the companies providing the materials and services to learn how long each process takes. Then, prepare a schedule for all participants and suppliers to follow. Leave extra time for creative changes and internal approval processes.

Different nonprofits have their own best mailing and fundraising seasons, often based on when performances (for performing arts groups), special services and exhibits take place and are promoted. Public television mailings usually accompany and support on-air telethons; there is a National Library Week in April, and so on. Plan to mail around an event -- especially if it has advertising support.

Cooperative fundraising makes sense in our highly competitive world of rising costs. If done well, however, it can be very rewarding personally and financially for your organization.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel to have a co-op. You can learn from others. If it works for others, chances are that it will work for your organization.