Santa Claus and the caribou

If it seems weird to be mentioning Santa Claus in the spring time, well please do not stress… it is weird. In the context of direct response and the importance of appropriate messaging at the right time - I am completely missing the mark - HOWEVER…

Please bear with me. I want to share a little story that I pulled out of “Creative Deviations”.

Creative Deviations is a new book coming out this May that shares many fundraising lessons, tons of examples about direct response, some pretty good stories and lots of direct marketing fundamentals. If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on the release of this book - just sign up here.

Ok, where was I?

Right, Santa Claus.

When you send anything to your donor, you have one shot to get their attention.

We often ask ourselves who, or what, is the right voice for the story. I think you’ll agree that almost anything would be better than the droning, overly professional tones of your ED. (No offense to your droning, overly professional ED of course.)

There was an appeal I worked on many years ago (with the Godfather of Good, David Love) for an organization called the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (with the unfortunate acronym of CARC), protectors of the arctic and the caribou.

We pitched the concept of a direct mail pack that would come from Santa. The outer envelope featured an illustration of an angry Santa writing a note while looking out his window. Some oil tanker had run aground spilling its contents and as a result the reindeer were falling over sick. I really wish I had a copy of this pack, but I’m sure you can imagine it. The letter, from Santa, told donors why he was upset and asked them for help.

The client was terrified. Thankfully, they took a chance. It raised a shed-load of money.

In fact, it raised more funds than any appeal they had done before. Donors were enchanted. They heard about a familiar issue in an unfamiliar sort of way.

Using a different voice to tell your story can do that for you.

I share this story since - ANYONE can use Santa in their storytelling. It might be a bit early to be thinking about your fall and holiday appeals but pour yourself a glass of rose and ask yourself… if Santa were writing an appeal to my donors today - what would he be asking for? How would he be asking for it? Why would he care so much about your core mission and how would he talk about it to your community?

Scribble some notes down and I hope you will find yourself chuckling a little because if you have the strength to execute such an appeal, your donors will do the rest. These are little creative deviations that will have massive impact on your work.

And please, share your creativity with me - especially if you mail it!