Overview:
As local news organizations last fall began strategizing on end-of-year fundraising plans, seven newsrooms turned to BlueLena for support to extend their campaign beyond the digital space through the use of targeted direct mail. The publishers executed a combined 12 donation-based fundraising campaigns in November and December, and as a group yielded a 3.6x return on investment, with the majority of publishers seeing a clear profit that could be directly attributed to the mailings.
The Challenge
End-of-year fundraising is a critical revenue period for local newsrooms, but is also one of the most crowded fundraising times, when email inboxes are saturated, paid digital channels become more expensive and organizations must compete for the attention of donors. While email messaging remains a critical component of an end-of year fundraising campaign, many publishers are exploring other channels to expand their fundraising efforts, including in-person events, 1:1 outreach, social media, text messaging and, for some, engaging readers through direct mail campaigns.
The Strategy
BlueLena worked with seven publishers to plan, design, schedule and execute targeted direct mail campaigns, with several organizations sending multiple campaigns tailored to different audience segments. All campaigns were sent between late October and early December to align with tax deadlines and heightened donor generosity during the end-of-year giving season.
The seven participating publishers were:
Ashland.News, Block Club Chicago, Borderless Magazine, Evanston Now, Evanston Roundtable, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and Wisconsin Watch
Each campaign used a consistent, proven format of 8.5 x 14 fundraising letters that allowed space for storytelling, highlighting of each organization’s value proposition and language that added a sense of urgency around giving during the year-end campaign.
Reply envelopes were included in each mailing to reduce friction for offline donors, while online donors could scan a QR code with their smartphone or enter a URL that directed to a landing page unique to the direct mail send.
Audience selection
While audiences varied by publisher, most campaigns focused on two groups:
Past donors, including LYBUNT (“last year but unfortunately not this year”), as well as donors who contributed earlier in the year
Highly engaged non-donors identified through our proprietary engagement scoring model built within the BlueLena platform
Using this intelligent segmentation ensured mailings were sent to readers most likely to respond, rather than broad or untargeted lists, resulting in strong conversions and return on investment
Measurement
BlueLena adheres to outcome-based reporting, a performance evaluation approach that focuses on measuring and analyzing response holistically. Accordingly, performance was evaluated using both:
Direct conversions: donations directly attributable to the mailing, such as a mailed remittance or visiting the response URL displayed on the letter, and
Indirect conversions: anyone on the mailing who subsequently converted, but not via the remittance stub or campaign URL
Direct conversions provide answers on the “efficiency” of a campaign and indirect conversions provide answers on the “effect” of a campaign.
Taken together, “direct” and “indirect” conversions then provide an “overall” conversion number that helps publishers understand the true “outcome” (or impact) of the campaign.
The Results
Across the 12 campaigns, direct mail consistently delivered strong performance during a crowded fundraising season.
| Publisher | Sends | Conversions | Percent Converted | Total Cost | Total Revenue | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher 1 | 459 | 16 | 3.5% | $459.00 | $368.52 | (19.7%) |
| Publisher 2 | 4,724 | 81 | 1.7% | $3,845.34 | $17,319.64 | +350.4% |
| Publisher 3 | 802 | 24 | 3.0% | $1,054.00 | $1,300.00 | +23.3% |
| Publisher 4 | 2,975 | 718 | 24.1% | $3,963.66 | $26,226.90 | +562.7% |
| Publisher 5 | 135 | 6 | 4.4% | $230.00 | $493.00 | +114.4% |
| Publisher 6 | 723 | 48 | 6.6% | $1,219.69 | $8,435.50 | +591.6% |
| Publisher 7 | 366 | 13 | 3.6% | $623.33 | $683.05 | +9.4% |
| Total All | 10.184 | 906 | 8.9% | $11,395.35 | $54,826.61 | +381.1% |
ROI and conversion rates
- Ten of 12 campaigns generated positive ROI based on “direct,” attributable revenue alone
- Direct conversion rates typically landed in the 1.5%–3% range, with several campaigns significantly outperforming that benchmark, particularly in cases where published didn’t differentiate between checks received through direct mail and other sources.
- The indirect/overall conversion rate of all 12 campaigns combined was just under 9%, influenced by a few standout campaigns, including those targeted to previous donors
| Metric | Measurement |
|---|---|
| Units Mailed | 10,184 |
| Direct conversions | 289 |
| % of units | 2.84% |
| Indirect conversions | 617 |
| % of units | 6.06% |
| Total conversions | 906 |
| % of units | 8.90% |
Donor behavior
The campaigns revealed consistent patterns among donors giving through the direct mail channel, with the majority of donations being one-time gifts, and the majority of those one time gifts being physical checks. Check donors on average contributed more, with the median check donation being $100, while the median one-time online gift was $75.
| Publisher | Conversions | Revenue | Revenue/Conversion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher 1 | 16 | $368.52 | $23.03 |
| Publisher 2 | 81 | $17,319.64 | $213.82 |
| Publisher 3 | 24 | $1,300.00 | $54.17 |
| Publisher 4 | 718 | $26,226.90 | $36.53 |
| Publisher 5 | 6 | $493.00 | $82.17 |
| Publisher 6 | 48 | $8,435.50 | $175.74 |
| Publisher 7 | 13 | $683.05 | $52.54 |
| Total All | 906 | $54,826.61 | $60.52 |
Direct mail performed well at capturing higher-dollar, one-time contributions. The average gift was $60.52 with one publisher averaging $213.82 on 81 responses. Several publishers emphasized higher dollar asks in their campaigns. This is a valuable lesson as more publishers are pursuing and finding success with episodic fundraising campaigns throughout the year.
Publisher Spotlight: Block Club Chicago
Block Club Chicago is an award-winning nonprofit publication that focuses on local news in Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods.
Following up on a successful direct mail campaign for its seventh birthday last June, Block Club engaged BlueLena in hopes of replicating the success during the publication’s end-of-year fundraising push.
A double sided letter from the publisher that highlighted an offer of a free postcard bundle featuring staff photography was a hit with readers. Sent to roughly 4,700 readers, the letter returned a 1.7% direct conversion rate, generating more than 4x return on investment — that’s more than $4 raised for every $1 spent on the mailing.
“Block Club added direct mail to our arsenal last year and we’ve been incredibly pleased with its performance,” said Taylor Faye Nazon, director of membership at Block Club Chicago. Nazon said direct mail fits into the organization’s multi-channel strategy to meet readers on the platforms they prefer. “Engaging with direct mail became an obvious necessity and the results have proven that it’s a worthwhile investment for us to continue to make.”
Nazon tracked performance of the latest mailing by looking for checks that came in with direct mail tear-off strips from the letter, or donations given through a designed direct mail donation landing page, allowing the organization to get a clear sense of the impact of the mailing.
Looking Ahead
Based on the strong performance of this recent direct mail fundraising, BlueLena is aiming to activate direct mail as a tool in ongoing multi-channel lifecycle strategies, including donor reacquisition, high-propensity prospect outreach and automated journeys that complement email and SMS. With the BlueLena platform, letters and postcards can be sent on an a-la-carte, or on an automated basis as readers reach certain milestones in their relationship with an organization.
This cohort’s results demonstrate that direct mail is not a relic of the past, but an effective tactic that is part of an integrated, multi-channel and outcome-based approach. By leveraging data, modeling, segmentation, precision-targeting and clear messaging strategy, direct mail remains a useful channel for newsrooms to strengthen reader relationships and drive meaningful donor support, during year-end fundraising and beyond.
About BlueLena
BlueLena is a strategy consulting and audience management platform founded in 2020 to support the sustainability of independent local media. By combining cutting-edge technology with expert-driven services, BlueLena helps over 250 news organizations across North America develop and manage subscription, membership, and donation models. Its unique shared-resource management approach provides publishers, regardless of size, with access to enterprise-level tools and personalized support, enabling them to focus on high-quality journalism while building loyal, revenue-generating audiences
BlueLena is majority employee-owned, and backed by investors including Automattic (the parent company of WordPress), the Local Media Association, and Old Town Media.
Mentions: Ashland.News, Block Club Chicago, Borderless Magazine, Evanston Now, Evanston Roundtable, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and Wisconsin Watch