Building Your Direct Mail Program

In Building Your Direct Mail Program—part of Excellence in Fundraising Workbook Series—Gwyneth J. Lister provides the tools you need to make direct mail programs as effective and efficient as possible. With material tailored for volunteers and professionals who have little or no experience with direct mail, Lister walks you step-by-step through the process of creating a strong direct mail program. Filled with handy worksheets, checklists, and tips for avoiding the most common pitfalls, the book takes you through the process from start-to-finish—from knowing who should receive the direct mail package and working with list brokers, to creating and budgeting the package and evaluating the results. In addition, Lister provides specific tips and strategies throughout all phases of the direct mail process, including guidelines for projecting mailing costs, advice on determining when it is most effective to use a direct mail campaign, suggestions for testing direct mail packages, and more. Nonprofit fund raisers, professionals, consultants, and managers will find Building Your Direct Mail Program an invaluable guide to developing one of the key fund raising tools of any organization—a successful direct mail program.

Author Biography

Gwyneth J. Lister, CFRE, is an adjunct faculty member of the University of San Francisco’s College of Professional Studies and Indiana University’s Fund Raising School. She has worked in the nonprofit field for more than twenty-five years as a development director and executive director, and, since 1987, as director of her consulting firm Accelerated Income Methods (AIM). Lister is a past recipient of the “Outstanding Fundraising Executive Award” from the National Society of Fund Raising Executives Golden Gate Chapter.