College uses direct mail to generate additional gifts in final phase of capital campaign

When a college in Connecticut was in its last stages of a capital campaign to expand its existing building, it came to A Direct Solution for direct mail advice and execution.

The college had already approached all of its major givers. Now it was time for the final stage, an appeal aimed at its remaining 2,900 donors, alumni and the community.

A Direct Solution developed a small acquisition mailing to add new names to its donor list in its regional coverage area, aimed at specific zip codes. We wanted to find a list of philanthropic names, but the geographical area was so small that the only solution was to mail to a compiled list of households, with a selection based upon the highest incomes in the area. The acquisition list was then compared against the donor names and those who had already been asked in the capital campaign were deleted, to ensure that there was no overlap.

A Direct Solution wrote two direct mail letters. One for acquisition and one for the donors. As the budget was small, we worked closely with the client, its printer and the laser printer and letter shop to ensure that the mailing went out with the correct name, address and ask amounts. The mailing went out in early January with positive responses still coming in.