Most donors see advantages to both the mail and e-mail communication they receive from the organizations they support. Very few completely reject one form or the other.
Grey Matter‘s new national study of 1,000 American donors explores perceptions of mail and e-mail. Very few consistently prefer one method over the other for donor communications.
Which Is Better?
The Donor Mindset Study asked charitable donors to compare the two methods of communication from organizations they already support, on six different factors. Which method is:
- more likely to get read
- more likely to be discard unopened
- a better use of the organization’s resources
- more likely to annoy them
- better at communicating facts and information
- better at telling a touching story
Getting Read
Donors are almost evenly divided over which method is more likely to be read. Thirty-seven percent feel they are more likely to read direct mail and 35% e-mail. Twenty-eight percent are equally likely to read each one.
Age plays a role in this, but not a big one. Among donors under age 35, e-mail is more likely than mail to get read, but only by a 44% to 35% margin. Among donors 65 and older, direct mail wins by a relatively small margin, 39% to 29%.
Hitting the Round File
The two methods may be equally likely to get read. But donors do find it easier to discard direct mail unopened (41%, compared to 26% for e-mail). This may be because the carrier envelope acts as a “preview” for direct mail, allowing donors to see the purpose of the mailing. Donors may have to open the e-mail in order to see what it’s all about.
Reading some communications and tossing others away unopened are not mutually exclusive activities. Thirty-four percent of those who are more likely to read direct mail are also more likely to discard it unopened. For e-mail, that figure is 20%. In fact, only 21% of donors are truly biased toward e-mail. They’re both more likely to read e-mail and more likely to discard direct mail unopened. Almost as many (16%) are truly biased toward direct mail in the same manner. Most donors simply do not have strong preferences in how the charities they support choose to communicate with them.
More Effective Communication
Donors do have the feeling mail is more effective at communicating with them. Direct mail has only a slight perceptual advantage over e-mail at communicating facts and information (37% to 32%). But it has a substantial advantage at telling a touching story (38% to 23%). Even among the youngest donors, who are often assumed to reject mail in favor of digital, 38% give mail the advantage at telling stories (versus 35% for e-mail). Among donors 65 and older, the perception is strongly in favor of direct mail (47%, to just 13% for e-mail).
Annoyance
Where e-mail has an advantage is in not annoying donors – but it’s only a slight advantage. Twenty-eight percent say they are more likely to be annoyed by receiving e-mail from an organization they support. Thirty-four percent are more likely to be annoyed by direct mail. Younger donors are the ones more likely to be annoyed by direct mail than by e-mail (45% to 24%). Among donors 35 and older, it’s evenly split between the two.
Better Use of Resources
Where e-mail has a substantial advantage is in the perception it is a better use of an organization’s resources. Fifty-five percent of all donors feel this way, while 24% believe direct mail is a better use of resources. This is one perception that does not vary by age group.
Busting Myths
Ron Sellers, president of Grey Matter Research, notes this study may help combat some common myths about donor communications. “There are some in the industry who preach that older donors simply won’t accept digital communication, or that young donors reject traditional direct mail,” Sellers said. “While different ages do lean toward one method or the other, most donors are quite accepting of both methods.” He explained that only 4% of all donors feel direct mail is superior to e-mail on all six of these measured factors. Just 6% rate e-mail as superior on all six. The vast majority see advantages to both methods.
Sellers pointed out that when new methods are introduced, there’s often a rush to “bury” traditional methods. However, what frequently happens is consumers get used to having more choices, rather than migrating quickly from the traditional to the new. “We heard that with the introduction of online and mobile banking, bank branches would be closing all over the country. Yet there are more branches in the US today than in 2007. Supposedly, with the increased number of television channels, the big networks would quickly die. But they’re still very much alive. We’ve also heard many times that direct mail is dead and that e-mail is how non-profits should be communicating with donors. The reality is donors usually accept both. Just like with banking and TV, they get used to having more options.”
The study examines these donors perceptions more in-depth, including by religious identification, amount given, and various demographics. Please e-mail ron@greymatterresearch.com for a free copy of the full report.
About Grey Matter Research:
Grey Matter Research is a marketing research and consumer insights company with extensive experience serving non-profit organizations. We have many donor-supported organizations and ministries as clients. Grey Matter works directly with donor-supported organizations and in partnership with the fundraising, branding, and marketing services agencies that support them.