[CSL board] direct mail

[Josh Harding]

I've responded inline below. All statements are IMHO, may not apply in all
states, and subject to changes and exclusions if I change my mind.

On 10/5/07, Dan MacNeil <dan at thecsl.org> wrote:
>
> Thanks to everyone for their quick and honest responses.
>
> We're certainly not guilty of group-think.
>
> > Has CSL done other direct mailings for funding before;
> > what were results?
>
> CSL has done zero direct mail.
>
> For a year, I was the junior guy in a 6 person IT group that supported
> the (at the time) 5 million dollar per year effort for http://habitat.org
>
> When I was on the board @ the Lowell habitat we made $20,000 with direct
> mail to existing supporters.
>
> I'd not thought of doing direct mail before because I'd not thought of
> an appropriate audience.


The most important part 'existing supporters'. My impression was that our
letters would not go to existing supporters, or people who had solicited
information about us. I don't think that would be very effective. (Please
correct me if my impression is incorrect)


> In addition to what Josh stated,
>
> To be clear, I mean paper/postal/snail mail.
>
> I'd like a little more detail than "Too traditional".


That statement was not well thought out. I apologize and retract it.


This feels a bit like the discussion we had on going after federal
> "faith based" money a while back.
>
> Existing budget is 90% grants or contract fees for work I've done and
> not been paid for. My current salary is about $12K/year, roughly 1/3 of
> the budget. I last got paid in June. I don't expect to be paid again
> until February (if all goes well)
>
> see sheet 2 in:
>
>         http://thecsl.org/sys/finance.d/budget-fy-2006-2007.xls
>
> If we hit the Parker grant, this will change, but so far this year we've
> made $3,000 in grants.
>
> We don't have many solid grant prospects right now. Even if we did, I'm
> selfishly interested in diversifying income. I'm ok with building a
> donor base over time. I'm ok with killing trees.
>
> Writing an article for linux journal is a good idea, but it isn't clear
> to me how this will bring in money. I've never read a linux journal
> article and thought "I should give that guy money" I can see an increase
> in volunteers, a corresponding increase in workload to manage and sift
> them and (eventually) more productivity.


It seems like we're dealing with two issues here; increasing our audience
and asking for/receiving donations. To increase our audience, sending
letters could be effective. I don't think we should ask for money in a
directed way (email, snail mail, telephone call) from someone unless they've
expressed an interest in what we do.

I would propose that we attack increasing our audience and getting donation
separately (for the most part). Linux Journal subscribers are a great group
to try to increase awareness of our existence in, but I wouldn't feel
comfortable asking for money except from folks who got back to us indicating
an interest in our work.

The thought process I envision would be for someone to read about us, be
interested enough to visit our web site, and in the course of a perusing the
web site, see a page asking for a donation. The specifics would be Eric's
job, but something akin to the popular micro-loan concept might work well.
We could have a button to donate a dollar right on the front page, and
another to donate a custom amount. That dollar donation would be a great
indicator of who might give us more money in the future.

-Josh

###########
>
> Karen Zgoda wrote:
> > In addition to what Josh stated, I'm concerned about how this fits
> > into our strategic planning.  Has CSL done other direct mailings for
> > funding before; what were results?  Direct mailings of previous
> > donors tends to work well.
> >
> > I'm thinking we would get a more positive financial result if we
> > wrote an article to publish in the Linux Journal describing how CSL
> > is using Linux in community-based NPOs.  Folks could be easily
> > compelled to donate after hearing about the work we are trying to
> > accomplish.
> >
> > ...Karen
> >
> > Karen Zgoda, MSW, LCSW
> > Doctoral Student
> > Boston College
> >
> > karen at karenzgoda.org
> > http://www.karenzgoda.org
> >
> >
> > On Oct 3, 2007, at 6:22 PM, Josh Harding wrote:
> >
> >> I would personally be very unlikely to respond positively to such a
> >> letter
> >> (and my name would be on the list ;) ). Is there some less
> >> conventional way
> >> we can reach out to an audience of people who might be intrigued by
> >> us?
> >>
> >> I've stuffed envelopes for many different NPO's over the years - mass
> >> mailing is certainly a well established tradition, but there are
> >> few things
> >> traditional about the CSL.
> >>
> >> What's Eric's opinion on the idea?
> >>
> >> Maybe I'm just touchy from working right next to the sales
> >> department in my
> >> current job...
> >>
> >> -Josh
> >>
> >>
> >> That's my initial reaction, although I may not understand all the
> >> factors...
> >>
> >> On 10/3/07, Dan MacNeil <dan at thecsl.org> wrote:
> >>> I have it in mind to rent the Linux Journal subscriber list and
> >>> sent a
> >>> letter asking for money (actually several test letters and one
> >>> final one)
> >>>
> >>> If this works, the effort can be repeated with apache week, PC
> >>> World, etc.
> >>>
> >>> Possible upsides:
> >>>
> >>>         1) not having to deal with grantors micro-management
> >>>         2) cash
> >>>
> >>> Downsides:
> >>>         1) need to build infrastructure to handle many small
> >>> donations
> >>>
> >>>         2) distractions from grants
> >>>
> >>>         3) will probably consume most of the remainder of Eric's
> >>>            first VISTA term.
> >>>
> >>> Obviously this will depend on a bunch of facts we've not yet
> >>> gathered,
> >>> for example the cost of renting the snailmail subscriber list.
> >>>
> >>> I'm curious as to people's quick gut reactions on direct mail vs
> >>> grant
> >>> writing?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
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