Would you change your fundraising based on 8 complaints?

It seems like a lot when you’re the person who’s copping the angry donors… but in the case of my client, it was 8 complaints out of 42,000 people mailed.

That’s 0.019%.

Yes, the client has received complaints from donors over one particular emotive line in the letter I wrote.

And yes, you do have to deal with these complaints in a positive way.

But consider this.

The income from this appeal is DOUBLE what it was at the same time last year. Last year’s appeal was mailed around the same time to the same number of donors. The offer is similar. The client is on track to more than meet its target for this appeal.

When complaints about your direct mail go up, often so does income…

So think hard about changing your approach to fundraising based on complaints from less than 1% of your data file.

In a future post, I’ll outline some positive ways to deal with donor complaints.