Mailings addressed to you

Why do charities put pens and coins in mailings?


These sorts of items are usually included in mailings designed to get you to give to a charity for the first time. They are there to catch your eye, save you time, make you interested enough to open the envelope, or to make you feel that you should give the contents of the packs your attention as the charity has made some investment in contacting you.

People often object to these inclusions because they look like a waste of the charity’s money and they are ‘gimmicky’. This a valid point of view – but addressed mail is a way of fundraising where it is very easy to calculate costs and to track how many people respond.

You can't please everybody!

Charities regularly test mailed appeals, so if these items are included in packs then tests have shown that the increase in the numbers of people who respond outweighs the extra costs of including the items.

In opting to use coins or pens in mailings a fundraiser therefore has to balance the risk of alienating some supporters, against the need to raise the highest amount he or she can for the cause.

There is an irony here as most supporters, given a choice, would prefer the charity to raise the most funds it can for the cause. Often people don’t realise though that this may sometimes involve the use of techniques that some will find inappropriate.