Imagine a world where you have a list of donors. You send messages to them. The delivery rate is very nearly 100%. They arrive in uncrowded in-boxes – even at the busiest times of year, there are seldom more than 10 message a day.

You can do whatever you find necessary to get their attention, encourage them to open your message, and then motivate them to give.

No algorithms or judgemental AI bots. No relegating your message to secondary in-boxes.

Just you and your donors. Connecting as you and they want to connect.

Welcome to the world of postal direct mail.

Okay, direct mail is not quite the paradise I’m making it sound like. The cost of direct mail has been outpacing inflation for many years. Response rates have been dropping.

But gift sizes have been increasing. Most years, rising enough to more than make up for the drop in response.

But while postal mail isn’t exactly a picnic for fundraisers, email has been getting a lot more difficult. And it’s rapidly getting worse.

Blame AI. And spammers, phishers, and hackers.

From your point of view as a human being with an email inbox, this is probably a pretty good thing. It’s helping your inbox stop being the daily time-sucking slog through piles of irrelevant garbage emails and attempts to trick you into stealing your money.

Now we’re seeing more of the stuff we want and need.

But as senders, it’s tough. Harder to get through. Harder even to get delivered.

Here’s what’s happening to our emails:

• Security and spam filtering: Service providers scan for risky or clearly unwanted messages. If a system thinks your message might be a problem, the recipient won’t see it.
• Categories and tabs: Services like Gmail automatically sort messages into Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and more based on content. They aren’t blocked like spam, but they end up in different tabs, where they are far less likely to be noticed or opened.
• Prioritization: For many recipients, AI decides which messages should be surfaced as “important” or “focused,” and which ones can be safely “buried.”

So email inboxes are getting more manageable.

But that means fewer and fewer of the messages we fundraisers send are ever seen by the good people we count on.

And it’s getting worse.

That’s one of the reasons we still need direct mail in a well-rounded fundraising program. It may be the only dependable way to get through to your best donors.

Next time someone proclaims, “Direct mail is dead! Let’s go all digital!”

Ask them about response rates to email.

And keep using postal mail. It may be a matter of survival.

Want more support, ideas, and proven strategies? Join the waitlist for The Fundraisingology Lab — our year-round learning community for fundraisers who want to grow their skills, income, and impact. You’ll be the first to know when doors open.

Related Blog Posts:

• Winning Direct Mail Lifts: Where to Invest to Improve Response
• 10 Design Tips for Stronger Direct Mail Fundraising
• An Integrated Multichannel Fundraising Campaign Is Easier Than You Think