Fundraising Direct: A Communications Planning Guide for Charity Marketing

Charities constitute a formidable sector in the U K economy. Numbering 180,000 and accounting for almost $17 billion in income, the sector is coming under increasing pressure to improve the effectiveness of its marketing efforts. Direct marketing is generally recognized as a (potentially) efficient medium (compared to mass advertising, for example). In this article, we provide a practical direct marketing planning framework geared towards maximizing fundraising efforts. Specifically, the framework details campaign objectives, segmentation, profiling and targeting. The focus is on message rather than execution. And the article concludes with a discussion of response analysis and an agenda for ongoing research in this domain.