*With everybody’s hand out, donors like me are more and more waxing cold
As a Christian, I watch some televangelist programs. I have my favorites who shall remain nameless. While there are people who are totally against televangelism, I go by the adage “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” – some of the messages are really good and insightful. They prompt me as a writer to search the scriptures for myself and give me ideas to write about as to how to apply scripture to everyday living.
I used to donate money because it seemed fair and logical as some programmers would reason “if you are benefitting from our telecasts, please send in a donation to help keep us on the air”. So, when I would send in a donation, I would receive a thank you and regular follow up letters asking for more. I also began receiving letters from other ministries asking for donations – ministries that I had never even heard of; which suggested that mailing lists were being shared. It had gotten so bad that I began writing on the return request form that suggests a range perhaps from 25 to 100 dollars (or other): “One-time offering, please remove me from mailing list.” This, of course, went ignored and I continued getting additional donation requests. As a result, I’ve stopped altogether.
Then there’s the matter of merchandising. It seems every televangelist releases a new book at least once a month – some once a week! How much more can be said and added to what they’re already preaching; and where do they get the time to write all these books? Could it be they pay ghostwriters who are theologically-yoked with them to write the books, then slap their own names and likenesses on them? It seems they’re all in a contest to boast who has the most books. So, even when I order the occasional book or CD for myself or others, I’m put back into heavy distribution on the mailing list.
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I know it’s a marketing concept: If you send so many mailers out, you can expect a certain percentage of responses/returns coming in. What’s not being considered though, is that with everybody’s hand out, donors like me are more and more waxing cold. It’s not just televangelists – it’s every charitable organization one can imagine. No sooner than you send a donation, there’s a barrage of follow up letters asking for more. The overwhelming truth is that your mail may be going unopened straight from the mailbox to the trash. And while on that note, what’s with all these free gifts? I have more monogrammed return mail stickers than I could use in a lifetime! I get pens, nickels, dimes, greeting cards and even gloves! Let’s make a deal: You keep your free gifts; I’ll keep my free money!
So, televangelists (and others), perhaps you could rethink the process. May I suggest when you ask for a donation, include a “One-Time Offer” section with a unique number. Ask the sender to retain their portion as a reminder and reference for tax purposes. Add a “Thank you in advance” message in that section so that there is no need to send a follow up thank you letter, leaving chance for the sender to end up on the regular mailing list again. You may even consider printing a “One Time Donation” checkbox on the return envelope for your mail sort processors to route to a specific person or unit. You could do something similar for your call-in donors.
Perhaps you could start by selecting a specific locale to test and measure the results.
My hunch is that you may even see an increase in donations if donors feel they will not be bombarded with follow-up correspondence including unwanted newsletters.
Larry Buford is a contributing writer. Author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” and “Book To The Future” (Amazon). Email: [email protected]
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