Bounty & Scarcity: Fundraising in the Time of COVID
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Bob Rudderow is a Founding Partner at RHA Marketing. He is a pioneer in utilizing in-line manufacturing for fundraising and other direct mail campaigns. He has developed unique patented designs and has produced over half a billion pieces.
Bob is known for his innovative designs and in-depth engineering knowledge of the process. He combines industry expertise and imagination. Among others, he has partnered with the Republican and Democratic National Committees, the US National Wildlife Federation, and the Humane Society of the US.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Bob Rudderow discusses the supply shortage around envelopes and paper
How the way you communicate affects donor amounts
Why is it important to quickly thank a donor?
The effects the pandemic has on direct mail response
In this episode…
How do you establish long-term donors and increase donation amounts? What if there was a way to do both?
Bob Rudderow knows that in the best of times, fundraising is difficult. This is why he stresses the importance of an adequately dressed envelope to reach the donor’s heart, followed by a series of meaningful communications.
In this episode of Greater Returns: A Fundraising Podcast, Dennis Hoffman speaks with Bob Rudderow, Founder of RHA Marketing, about the importance of using effective communication for higher gift amounts. Bob offers tips and tricks for sending out direct mail during a pandemic, regularly communicating with donors, and showing gratitude for a donation. Stay tuned!
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Bob Rudderow’s phone number: 443-433-6979
Sponsor for this episode...
This episode is brought to you by Engage USA.
At Engage USA, we maximize direct mail fundraising efforts for nonprofit and charitable organizations by streamlining processes, providing obsessively accurate data, and delivering personalized and transparent expert caging and commercial lockbox services.
We pride ourselves on being quick to respond to customers. Our systems capture, verify, and balance data in real-time, allowing us to provide our clients with obsessively accurate data and deposits within 24 hours. At Engage USA, we help nonprofits, charities, and political campaigns run more successful fundraising efforts.
So what are you waiting for?
Visit engageusa.com to learn more about our work or contact us today!
Episode Transcript:
Dennis Hoffman 0:02
Okay, testing testing, do you hear me? Yes, I do. Okay, excellent. Dennis Hoffman here. I'm the host of Greater Returns a fundraising podcast where I talk with top nonprofit leaders about marketing, direct mail and analytics. I have Bob Rudderow. here from RHA Marketing. Bob was a longtime friend and mentor. He's helped my clients and me become more successful direct mail fundraisers, maybe can do the same for you. This episode is brought to you by Engage USA at Engage USA we provide expert caging and lockbox services to help organizations meet their unique fundraising needs. Our proprietary systems capture, verify and balance data in real time, allowing us to provide our clients with excessively accurate data and deposits within 24 hours. State national charities, advocacy organizations and political candidates count on Engage USA to help their fundraising campaigns become more successful. So what are you waiting for? Visit www.engageusa.com or email info@engageusa.com to learn more. Before I introduce today's guest, I wanna give a big thank you to John Corcoran of Rise25 Media. John's a fellow member of the entrepreneurs organization and a genius about podcasts. John convinced me to start this podcast, anything you like about it is because of John, any mistakes are mine alone, visit John's website at rise25.com. And now our guest Bob Rudderow is a friend confident and mentor to some of the best known experts in direct mail fundraising. He's a pioneer in utilizing inline manufacturing techniques for fundraising. And it was developed unique often patented formats that have mailed over half a billion pieces. Bob's fundraising clients have included both major political parties, National Wildlife Federation, and the Humane Society of the US. Bob, you ready to get started? giraffe? I can. Okay, so everyone in direct mails talking about the paper show and unblock shortage as well facing? How bad is it?
Bob Rudderow 2:17
It's pretty bad. The Mills right now shut down a lot of Mills because of environmental situations. But the big thing is papers becoming scarce because the mills are making more money making corrugated for fulfillment people doing a lot more Amazon's and the so the paper is more profitable with less restrictions and a QC required for for all set paper then it would be for targeted. So that's making a demand. A crease for car gay is killing a lot of offset for envelopes, and for and for direct mail components.
Dennis Hoffman 2:59
So 1600 offsets, to this year what toilet paper was to last year or people coordinate?
Bob Rudderow 3:05
Possibly, I think what happens is you cannot, you cannot you can't get to the point where you're asked for special order paper, seven account stock is harder to come by 15, six or more standard. They're standardizing the roll thicknesses. So sometimes you have to be stuck with certain roll thicknesses to be careful how you later Later layout work. But some of the alternatives will be in line packages sometimes because it's you know, you can do it may be a formula on envelopes while you're doing the package. But I'd say lead time is greater, you got to make sure you plan ahead. And you got to make sure you get commitments from your suppliers to make sure that you have enough envelopes and and and paper for your brain.
Dennis Hoffman 3:51
So in my manufacturers are not having difficulty getting paper, are they just because they're bigger users they're having an easier time.
Bob Rudderow 3:58
I'd say they have just as much trouble getting in. But they they they buy more standardized stocks. Normally you run 60 pound offset, and that's it and there's and there's the mills don't want to make a lot of changeovers. So you can run days and days of offset on on roles. And then the enlight people make their own envelopes at the same time they're going they're doing their printing. But they too are having problems with paper.
Dennis Hoffman 4:24
Sure. So you may have other strategies to help us prepare for this. Or you have any other strategies to help us prepare for paper shortages.
Bob Rudderow 4:35
Planning ahead, get your commitments ahead of time. You don't have room for a lot of last minute orders. You've got to make sure you definitely have a commitment. Otherwise you can find yourself not being able to meet the requirements that your clients want.
Dennis Hoffman 4:52
What about envelopes, they have a more limited shelf life so well how handling that because you can't really Direct to foreign influence, right?
Bob Rudderow 5:02
That's the same same problem. They're having problems getting paper to. They're passing along the costs. And they have the plant head to.
Dennis Hoffman 5:10
Yeah. So no easy answers. Not yet. Yeah. When you figure that out them out, let me know. So, Bob, you've always said that direct mail fundraising, even the best times is difficult, and there's not a lot of room for mistakes. What should we be checking for?
Bob Rudderow 5:29
Well, your package is your communication to your recipient. So you have to impress him the fact you have something that means that to his his heart, and he understands it, you make sure it's addressed properly, because no one likes to have an envelope that's not dressed properly. Got to make sure the names correctly done, the salutation it'd be usually should be addressed to Mr. Last name, as opposed to Mr. Full Name, because it looks differently, you say, Mr. Dennis Hoffman doesn't look personalized. You got to make sure you have the correct lists. The correct copy, make sure the grammar is correct, the spelling is correct. Because they judge you or your so your your association based upon that particular solicitation, your copy is talking to your recipient, you gotta be real. And sometimes you got to reinforce stuff three or four times just like you would in a situation you're trying to convince someone to do something, you got to let them know what you're looking for. And make sure you ask.
Bob Rudderow 6:33
When you do have recipient, you got married donor, you gotta realize it, that the donor, once you have a donor, you communicate to them regularly, email up to four times for every four weeks. And you also want to thank them when you get a donation. And you also wanted to, if you can keep them informed of what what your association is doing such as a newsletter, keep them into the fold by by communicating with them and not just send requests for money. Yeah, lemnos doing with the money? Absolutely. Nothing too is, when you ask for something, you're you're normally asking him in the first person singular, like you're saying, even on your reply device, you're saying I want to do this, I want to do this. But down there my best gift in your line of asks. So if you have something like 10 hours, 20 hours, 30 hours, instead of word other put down my best gift. And you'll find that the people give a little more thought to it. If it says my best gift is coming from them, they're thinking about it. And we found that any everyone we've worked with trying that gets a higher, give them out doesn't change. The fact that you don't change response rate, but it does increase your gift amount.
Dennis Hoffman 7:49
So that's increasing the average gift. Yes. Fantastic tip. Thank you. Anybody in any episode, don't do that. leaving money on the table.
Bob Rudderow 7:59
We can determine how it works. But just getting your your play devices back. If you did a B split half of the other half. I'm saying my best gift. Look at what the donee sorry, where they fall within the the spectrum of requests.
Dennis Hoffman 8:14
Absolutely. So you were talking about gratitude? And how and how to thank donors. And that's, that's surprisingly controversial. In our industry, there are a lot of people who argue that thank you have to pay for themselves. I have taken the opposite, I think an opposite approach. And I think you do too. How can we do a better job with gratitude,
Bob Rudderow 8:42
you definitely sent him a letter. And you say thank you. And the thank you check it out. Very quickly after the after, after you receive the donation because you want to make sure it's fresh in their mind. You also make sure include another envelope. And let them ask them again, say thank you very much, and anything you can do to help us support this week, give me another envelope or just just make it make sure you just don't send a thank you out without having an envelope and then possibility of getting a donation back most of the time. Your thank yous. Your Thank you program will pay for the cut the cost of that of the thank you and even make money. Because you got a proven donor right there.
Dennis Hoffman 9:20
Absolutely. And the same is true with with newsletters,
Bob Rudderow 9:25
newsletters, you always put an effort with the newsletter to You always make sure it's easy for somebody to donate, if you basically give us an update, telling him what you've done with their money and what's going what's coming up. It gives them more of a feeling of of being part of the fold. And if so, there may be an incentive to have them send another nation. Sure.
Dennis Hoffman 9:51
So you can anything interesting right now?
Bob Rudderow 9:55
Well, I'd say right now what's interesting is overall responses Increased because of COVID COVID, keeping prospective donors who are normally older, but keeping them more home bound, and the reading their direct mail solicitations a lot more. So we're finding out response rates are up, and donations are up. And they'll be that way for another year, especially with the Delta variant. So I say if there's any good time to Mel D Now,
Dennis Hoffman 10:22
he's see any sign of that falling off, or is that did you feel like it's just continuing
Bob Rudderow 10:28
for my Understand? until people go back on cruises, and until people stop wearing masks, you're going to find response rates are up. I hate to sound like it's, I'm happy about it. But I was surprised the fact that everyone we work with is saying the same thing. It's like, response rates are a lot higher, and they're getting money in a lot faster.
Dennis Hoffman 10:53
I think we were all surprised by how COVID changed, changed response rates and how it breathed new life into a lot of nonprofits. So, who do you think is doing anything really interesting in our industry right now?
Bob Rudderow 11:16
Oh, I've had without mentioning names, I find that commingling is very important. Because if we you commingle the mail goes REITs, or mail stream, I have heard that the post office has an awful lot of absences, people not showing up at work. And when the mail comes in, if they have to process the mail or the Postal Service, they put it aside until they have enough manpower to push it through. So we're finding out if you do the commingling, your mail goes out faster. So that's something that is B, we're always concerned about commingling maybe not being enough mail in the stream to end up having it be delivered faster, but it's definitely faster. In some cases, we find that some people have had their mail held up for months, because the post office didn't have a chance to to pay fees or the manpower to fulfill it.
Dennis Hoffman 12:12
We've had clients tell us in the last month about getting mail returns from mail that mailed in January and April, in the month of July. So I I know exactly what you're talking about. I think there's not
Bob Rudderow 12:26
the returns themselves. This is the solicitations aren't getting out there. So their returns go through first class mail gets processed, but our mail is going out. If it's not processed by commingling or draft direct check direct shipments, we find it it's harder to get that piece of mail into the into the hands of the recipient.
Dennis Hoffman 12:46
Absolutely. So people who are watching this, what could they be doing today to help raise more money for their causes?
Bob Rudderow 12:57
I'd say the best thing now it sounds self serving is to mail a lot because people are reading it. So if you have a story to tell mail a lot mail often. And I think you'll find that you're going to increase your donor list quite a bit during the next six months to a year.
Dennis Hoffman 13:20
Fantastic. So Bob, this has been really good. I've got one more question. Let's pretend you're on the Oscars and the Emmys. And you've just won a huge award. And you got to give you know, you've got to give thanks and recognition to the people who have made a big difference in your life. What would you say
Bob Rudderow 13:43
is say very quickly, Richard Gregory, who's the grandfather of conservative direct mail, has always been an educator and a supporter. And I'd say also Hao Mao Chow on the on the liberal side has always done the same. In fact, they get together and they share a lot of stories. Because in the past, if you would find these people competing ideologically, but from a business standpoint of you, they help each other because they don't have the same client base. And they both profit by by by exchanging exchanging ideas to each other. So it's a it's an interesting world right now. But both of those two have been very good mentors and I've learned a lot from them. And also you we've learned a lot together Together we've learned a lot. And I remember years years ago we've been together for for 20 2020 years plus, and I've learned a lot from you to
Dennis Hoffman 14:42
your early mid 90s so 2025 26 years. Wow. Bob and I have worked together on lots of clients we tip we learn to play craps together. We neither one of us Gamble's like that anymore but we did have a lot of fun over the years with with Rita Smith, who is another direct mail genius. The three of us go on trips. So I've been talking with Bob Rudderow is an advisor, friend and mentor to some of the most successful direct mail fundraisers in the country. And a friend and mentor to me as well. Bob's the owner of RHA Marketing, Bob, how can people get in touch with you or just learn more about you?
Bob Rudderow 15:33
Well, it's RHAmarketing.com or you can just contact us. By myself. I'm always available 24/7 443-433-6979 Thanks for most Dennis.
Dennis Hoffman 15:47
Thanks Bob
Unknown Speaker 15:48
Bye Bye now.