Host: Today, I’m sitting down with David Sacchetti, and we’re chatting about how nonprofits can expand their digital channels while also optimizing their direct mail efforts. This isn’t an either-or approach; it’s a both-and.  

We’ll cover some of the challenges associated with moving beyond the basics of what many nonprofits typically do, as well as a walk-jog-run approach for organizations that aren’t especially sophisticated and for those that are a little more sophisticated and want to optimize what they’re already doing.  

So, David, what are some general challenges that many nonprofits face? Say they have a strong direct mail program, but their results have been declining year-over-year. They want to grow their digital efforts, but they’re not sure where to start. Let’s give an overview of the 2025 direct mail and digital landscape and the mindset of a nonprofit that may be thinking about this approach. 

David Sacchetti: Over the last five to 10 years, there’s been a shift in how nonprofits think about their mass communications and mass outreach to donors. We’ve dealt with declining mail files, more transactional-level donors, lower retention rates, more of a churn-and-burn mentality through many mass market mail programs, and increasing competition from the nonprofit sector and the corporate world. You can get a coffee or go shopping, and donate to a charitable mission at checkout.  

There’s more competition than ever for people’s donation dollars. There are limited donor universes where organizations can target donors. Everybody’s going after the same pool of donors. So, it’s important to focus on how to expand your donor base and leverage other channels, like a digital channel, to engage prospective constituents and try to acquire donors through digital efforts.  

Mail is also becoming increasingly expensive, with the rising costs of paper and postage. Many organizations have fallen into this trap, pulling back on mail investments and reallocating them to digital efforts to acquire donors and keep them engaged. But by no means is mail no longer viable. It’s still a vital channel that’s very important for engaging donors, providing meaningful touchpoints for them to stay connected to the organization, and driving a significant amount of revenue.  

Now, the right approach is to create a balance between expanding into other channels without sacrificing the investment in mail. Keep things moving forward and growing, and build your donor base with direct mail, which is still a critical source of donors to upgrade to mid-level or planned giving.  

It’s more important than ever to have a healthy direct mail program. You must look for ways to integrate and expand into the digital channel without losing focus on your mail program. 

Host: Part of this conversation also involves integrating fundraising and marketing as much as possible. A new donor’s first impression of your organization is likely influenced by marketing, whether in an ad or on your website. Could you please touch on why those two teams must be as integrated as possible? 

David Sacchetti: That’s a great point. Now more than ever, the lines between marketing and fundraising are getting blurred. Think about your direct marketing programs as branding. Most organizations don’t have large, robust advertising budgets for billboards and commercials.  

Reaching a huge segment of prospective and existing donors through the mail creates a large number of brand impressions that the organization wouldn’t otherwise have. We’re discovering more and more and more that direct mail is an opportunity for donors to engage in direct response and make a gift. There are also tons of marketing and brand impression benefits when you think about things more holistically rather than by silo or channel, like offline versus online or marketing versus fundraising. 

Host: I have an interesting little story related to this. I recently received a fundraising appeal letter from our local food bank. I get a lot of mail from a larger, regional food bank, so I was interested to see what outreach looked like from a local one. But then, I was bummed because we get so much mail and go through it quickly, so that letter accidentally got thrown away.  

I would have also loved to receive a digital touch from this organization, whether through an ad or a local billboard, to learn more about them. Of course, I can look it up on the internet, but getting that one piece of mail that fell through the cracks despite my best intentions was a bummer. 

David Sacchetti: Research shows that it now takes three to five touchpoints for someone to take action. A great way to integrate offline and online is to ensure that donors or prospective donors get a cohesive experience with the same messaging around your campaign.  

I’ll use an example of an awareness month. Let’s say there’s an opportunity for a tentpole campaign with one or two mailings asking for support. The more you can integrate messaging and share information about this campaign through digital, phone, and other marketing channels, the better the campaign will do because it reinforces the message that donors and prospective donors should participate.  

Some of these things are easy to implement and don’t require a major investment of budget dollars. For example, if there’s a mail campaign for an awareness month, you could leverage some real estate on your website’s homepage, like a hero ad or image promoting the campaign. Coordinating an email deployment and social media activity is also an easy lift that doesn’t require much additional investment. You can get messages out and three to five touchpoints in place to see a stronger and better response to the campaign and drive more revenue.  

This works in the opposite direction as well. You can leverage things like a QR code or a dedicated vanity URL on your mail piece to encourage people to go online and give rather than write out a traditional check and mail it back. 

Host: It’s all about using the mail piece as a little cue or reminder and then integrating the people who are more likely to be digital donors into your digital process. 

David Sacchetti: Exactly. Then, even though the direct mail is fundraising-focused, it acts as advertising and marketing. It’s brand impressions and brand awareness. Any development professional would agree that it doesn’t matter how a donor gives, as long as they make a gift. If they scan the QR code, give online, and then toss the direct mail piece in the trash, it has still accomplished its mission of getting someone to make a gift.  

Host: Definitely. I love it when everything I need is printed on the envelope, including the QR code, even if it’s a standard No. 10 envelope. “Here’s the campaign, here’s a quick graphic of the organization.” It’s not just another white envelope that looks like all my other bills and can easily get tossed in the trash. 

David Sacchetti: In terms of thinking about this through a walk-jog-run mentality, as you implement some of these easy integration points, you can start building on that and allocating some budget dollars for things like direct mail retargeting. Say someone scans the QR code on a mail piece, hits the landing page, but doesn’t follow through and make a gift. Maybe they got distracted. You can then serve them some retargeting ads to remind them about the campaign, getting them to go back and complete their donation or transaction.  

A cart abandonment strategy requires a bit of investment, but we see tons of return on it, so it’s certainly time well spent. You can also layer in other things like voice broadcast or text connected to the campaign, allowing another channel to come into play. This gives people more touchpoints, and it’s an opportunity to engage and drive some incremental revenue for the campaign through things like deadline text. “Hey, watch your mailbox, because you’re getting an important letter from me in the next few days.” That kind of thing. 

Host: That’s a great segue into my question around growing digital trends. You’ve mentioned a few channels already, but let’s give a spectrum of least sophisticated to most sophisticated. What are some channels a nonprofit can use? 

David Sacchetti: At this point, digital as a channel is baked into most development operations. People are pushing email — sometimes, it’s connected to mail campaigns; sometimes, it isn’t. Organizations may be doing independent digital campaigns that don’t have support.  

We need to continue to move as an industry toward leveraging digital experiences to acquire donors and keep them engaged. Organizations need to start thinking through how they can keep digital donors engaged.  

We have a lot of research and years and years of data that says direct mail donors tend to be sticky. They have a higher retention rate than online donors, so people think of them as good leads for a mid-level or planned gift. You may have someone giving through the mail for 20 years and then leave something to the organization in their will.  

It’s a bit different with digital. While they may continue to give over several years, their retention isn’t quite as high as it is with mail — partly because of the experience and journey we want them to take. We must be more thoughtful about how we engage donors digitally and provide meaningful touchpoints to keep them involved and connected to the organization, so that we can create more long-term relationships with them through digital. 

It’s a little easier to do that on the mail side because you have a longer runway. You have a full letter to tell a story. You can talk about the mission in more detail, and people can sit down and interact with it physically. But digitally, you have a quick minute that people will skim an email or look at an ad. It’s much harder to create an experience online.  

Organizations need to think about how to create a more intentional pathway for a great, meaningful digital experience. 

Host: This is a side question, but I believe Facebook and Instagram stories now allow everybody to include a link in the story. That used to be a premium feature for those with a certain number of followers, but now anyone can do it. There are also a lot of cool engagement tools within that feature. You can ask your followers questions, or do an informal survey or poll. I see digital content creators using those tools across channels. 

For example, they might post their longer-form content on a YouTube channel and clips on their Facebook or Instagram pages. They’ll poll audiences for ideas of future topics or responses to recent events. They’ll boost fundraisers or information for similar creators to give them some attention. Even though an Instagram or Facebook story goes away after 24 hours, you can add it to a highlight section on your profile where it will hang around longer. 

Regular users of those platforms are accustomed to those tools. If a nonprofit could build a significant audience on those channels, it could also use them. 

David Sacchetti: To your point, which is so valid and such a good example of why we need to smash down these barriers and silos, why couldn’t you use that for a fundraising campaign? Why couldn’t you tell a story or set up a reel on social media focused on a fundraising campaign, laying out a case for support that people can follow across four or five slides on an Instagram or Facebook story?  

Historically, we’ve considered social media more marketing than fundraising. It’s shifting the mindset to take down those barriers and silos and try these things.  

Another great example is video. Video used to be very expensive. It was to be polished and professional, and was only reserved for major things. Now, tools are fairly cost-effective and let you communicate one-to-one with one or many constituents to mimic a one-to-one experience. You can leverage video much more effectively throughout your digital experience and provide more personal connections to the mission and organization.   

I don’t see organizations leveraging that to the extent that they should. I’m talking about recording a non-polished, 1- or 1.5-minute video message on your computer or phone that you share with constituents. It provides a personal interaction and shows a human connection to the organization. It also displays authenticity.  

These are things that donors respond to or resonate with. They create meaningful relationships, so donors will pay attention to the organization’s next communication, even if it’s asking for money. 

Host: Oh, 100%. Again, pulling from that example of creators on YouTube and social media, half the reels I see are people sitting in a parking lot in their car filming something. It’s comedians and religious leaders. It’s people saying, “I just went to this grocery store, and these are the new products I tried.” Whatever it is, people have figured out how to integrate creating content into their day-to-day life.  

As another example, I wanted to film a little travel video. That used to feel intimidating. I would take pictures and videos all day, then get to the end of the day and not know where to start because I had 300 pictures to pull from. But with Instagram’s native reel creator, you can save your work as a draft and create the video as you go through your day. Take the best video clip from the last two minutes of footage, put it in there, and save it. Even if you don’t want to post it, you can download it from Instagram as a video and upload it elsewhere. 

All that to say, using the free tools is a very homegrown approach that could be powerful.  

David Sacchetti: I agree. It’s a good example of how you can take advantage of some of the digital landscape with very little investment needed from the organization. 

Host: Absolutely. Let’s move back into the integration of mail and digital with a walk-jog-run approach. What back-end systems are needed to ensure you integrate the channels as best you can? 

David Sacchetti: An integrated data solution is essential. You don’t necessarily have to have the same database for your digital and offline efforts, but they need to talk to each other. They must be connected and integrated so you can build a mail file and then understand who from that file is on your digital list. Is there a subset of that mail file that’s also online, so you can speak to them in a customized multi-channel or omni-channel way? 

It’s important to have that holistic view of campaign results. You’re not just seeing how the mail piece performed. What revenue was generated through mail, but how much was generated through the text connected to the mail? What about the vanity URL landing page or email? Who saw the mail, clicked on a paid social ad, and made a gift? You must be able to aggregate information into one place and look at reporting and donor activity from a holistic perspective instead of through a silo. 

Host: That ties in perfectly with the importance of a consistent and holistic donor experience with your organization. Having back-end systems that can talk to each other in databases can help you deliver a more consistent experience. Someone gets the same call to action and creative in the mail, which matches the ads they’re seeing and their experience on the landing page. Having back-end systems integrated helps you have a more seamless front-end experience. 

David Sacchetti: That’s exactly right. Eventually, our industry will get to a place where we can customize a constituent’s journey based on their preferences, donor behavior, and how they want to interact. Then, we can create a truly personal experience and journey for that donor based on their interests and what motivates them to support the organization. We can serve content in the way they want to receive it. 

Host: Do we have any case studies or examples of nonprofits that have expanded their digital efforts while optimizing their investment in direct mail? 

David Sacchetti: Absolutely. Many organizations are moving from that walk to jog phase. A few examples come to mind of large, sophisticated direct mail programs that have, over the last 18 to 24 months, started layering in things like text and voice broadcast. Or they’ve implemented some direct mail list retargeting online, serving ads to support the mailings.  

There’s a tighter integration happening between digital and mail from a mass marketing channel perspective. Take email, for example. The story told in the mail is also told online, but it is presented in a way via email that makes it easy to digest, whereas mail has the longer-form storytelling aspect.  

Many organizations are thinking more holistically about email and digital opportunities within their ecosystem, whether through ads on their homepages or lightboxes that pop up when you land on specific pages. They’re integrating them more with their direct mail programs.  

Host: Let’s dig into the data piece a bit more. How have we helped clients use their data to better segment their lists for different channels or specific messages?  

David Sacchetti: One value we bring to the organizations we work with is our ability to look at a donor file and understand its nuances and the different aspects of that file beyond the traditional recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) segmentation level. We can consider how to group donors together so that we can speak to them more meaningfully, because donors don’t think of themselves in terms of recency, frequency, and monetary levels.  

We need to start thinking about how we communicate with donors in a way that makes sense to them. For example, look at recency, frequency, and a monetary level for segmentation, but then go beyond that and ask, “Who has donated to this campaign previously?” Then, segment donors for prior responders to the campaign in the last three years. Include them in a customized segment with messaging reminding them they gave to this campaign in the previous year or two or three. 

Speaking to them in a customized way has boosted the response because they understand and self-select into it. Then, they say, “Oh yeah, I did give to this campaign last year or the year before, and because of XYZ, I’ll give to them again.” That’s one way of looking at data, segmenting it, and thinking of it differently.  

We’ve also provided value by looking at demographic and psychographic information through our GivingDNA platform to understand the profile of a donor file. What are the characteristics of the donor base? Are they affluent? Do they lean one way politically? What’s their age, income level, and discretionary income? How many are actively giving to other organizations?  

All that information helps us segment donors into appropriate groups that we can then engage with in a more customized manner. It also helps us target prospects that mimic our existing donors’ attributes through mail and digital acquisition. We can try to acquire people with a similar demographic and psychographic history. Because they’ve given to nonprofits like us in the past, the propensity for those donors to raise their hand and become new donors to the organization is greater. 

Host: Let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of timing for digital and direct mail. Suppose you’re sending a mail campaign that you want to complement on other channels. What do you do on the back end to ensure everything hits their awareness at the right time? 

David Sacchetti: For an omni-channel campaign, much of the planning has to happen well in advance due to the lead times for direct mail, which are longer than for digital. You get a jump on your digital efforts because you must think through everything as you prepare the campaign’s mail aspect. You flesh out the strategy well in advance. 

From a content perspective, direct mail is longer-form storytelling. So, you must also prepare all the content before other aspects of the omni-channel campaign because you’re putting together the full story for the mail. You can then leverage that full story and distill it into the components you’re trying to integrate.  

What does the message look like for text or broadcast? How many emails are there? What content should we highlight in the email because we think it will resonate most? What do we put on a landing page that people will hit from multiple digital sources?  

The beauty of omni-channel is that it allows you to think holistically from the beginning because of the demands of direct mail. You can think more effectively and thoughtfully as you develop the digital components.  

Host: Moving on to some of the common challenges people face when they’re trying to take that next step. You mentioned many times that organizations may have an internal divide between marketing and fundraising, which can be challenging because the budget isn’t necessarily combined for maximum effect. When we work with a client where that’s the case, what do we recommend to help the client think about their program more holistically?  

David Sacchetti: That’s a great question because it’s prevalent and important to address. Number one, create meaningful working relationships across the organization. Foster a collaborative relationship, not an adversarial one. It’s about creating dialogue — sit down and talk about how they can work together to make this campaign successful. Get the buy-in and willingness to participate that’s needed.  

Sometimes, it might even be budget allocation that’s critical for an omni-channel approach to succeed. You can also apply the walk-jog-run mentality — position it as a testing opportunity. If there’s trepidation or concern, set it up as a test. Try it, look at the results, then use them to foster more collaboration. 

Host: I love that. Say a nonprofit has a robust mail file, but its digital universe isn’t nearly as large. How can a nonprofit start to build out a universe of digital donors if they want to go on this journey we’re proposing? 

David Sacchetti: The easiest and cheapest way is to ask for email addresses in your mail communications. That’s one way to begin to build your digital file. Another way is to provide opportunities within your mail program to make it easy for people to migrate online to make a gift. Giving them those opportunities through the mail file will help your digital file grow organically. 

You can also take some other steps to start prospecting digitally with minimal investment. For instance, you can add follower lookalikes to some social campaigns or budget for some paid social media to support the direct mail campaign.  

Trying to collect names or email addresses is a great way to build that file, and you can do that through many different approaches. One would be a participatory campaign where you ask people to sign up and take an advocacy action. Or ask them to participate in a message wall or a community-oriented campaign where you collect email addresses and give them a downloadable resource connected to your mission. Then, you can take those emails and warm them up over the next several months, hopefully leading them to become a donor.  

Host: One cool thing I’ve seen is people in the nonprofit space and the online digital creator space offering an online-only experience, like a newsletter that comes straight from the CEO through Substack or one of those platforms. It’s been interesting to see the growth of that as a channel, when people today can be more suspicious about giving their email address out.  

In fact, many people have an email address they use just for business or nonprofit communications and one for people they know. Today, even with email, people are starting to put up some layers for how to get to them. More than ever, nonprofits that want to grow digitally need to think about what online-only content will attract people to follow what they’re doing.  

David Sacchetti: That’s what it all comes down to, which we were talking about earlier. Create intentional and meaningful digital engagement with them so they won’t hesitate to give you their email addresses. 

Host: Is there anything else you want to include that we haven’t touched on? 

David Sacchetti: The only other thing I would say is there’s no reason not to start. Just start. Plan a test, try some integration. We develop by trial and error.  

My biggest advice is to jump in and expand your footprint digitally, using the budget you have available.