"Mommy? What's a donor impact report?"
File under: Your donor newsletter builds brand, reassures your truest of true believers ... and helps raise serious money for all sorts of needs like monthly giving, emergency funds and capital campaigns. At least, that's the hope.
(Above) What matters most by far is the bigger, bolder, briefer type (and the pictures). Read the opening of this ED's letter, for instance....
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What is an "impact report"? It's a donor newsletter by another name.
Mid-sized org.s like Upper Valley Haven in Vermont ($6.6 million in grants and contributions, according to its latest 990 filing with the IRS) have become "impact report" all-stars ... sometimes with a little help from a "paid best friend..."
... in this case a firm named Five Maples, which I first ran across in 2023 ... and pays me zero for this unsolicited sterling endorsement. (There are SO many other "paid best friends" you might collaborate with. See below for my short list.)
Know: Upper Valley Haven's PRINT newsletter (a.k.a., impact report) makes more money than it spends ... & plays brilliantly with typical digital comms: emails, social, website.
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From the Five Maples blog:
Did you know impact reports also raise money? 💰
The Donor Impact Reports we track, mailed in an envelope with a reply envelope included as a soft ask, raise $1.64 in returned gifts for every $1.00 spent writing, designing, printing and mailing.
Get this: Our client Upper Valley Haven, located in White River Junction, Vermont, raised $300,000 last year just from the donor impact reports interspersed between their appeal letters.
They mailed a 4-page impact report in February, an 8-page impact report in July and an impact postcard (see below) in October.
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Your .org can swing both ways, of course.
You could vividly, repeatedly remind me of how wonderful I am because I'm a donor ... or not.
You could remind me why the people your mission serves are my own suffering neighbors ... or not.
You can connect with me, my interests, my values, my hopes, my worries ... or not.
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Dear colleagues: If you're shopping for a pal who can do the technical stuff, here's my incomplete, alphabetical, private list of North American vendors who do impact reports (donor newsletters) at a profitable (for you) level. No one pays me a dime for these recommendations. I just admire their work and attitudes immensely:
Agents of Good
BuildGood
The Casement Group
The Case Writers collective
Five Maples
Fundraising Writing
[Upper Valley Haven illustrations above are reprinted with kind permission; thank you, Laura Gillespie, Director of Development and Communications]
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Dear Reader: This is an excerpt from Tom Ahern’s e-newsletter. Did you miss crucial back issues of this how-to e-news? Immediately available! Just GO here. (And scroll down just a bit to sign up for Tom’s revenue-boosting tips and insights. In your inbox regularly. It’s free.)