Year over year, one of the most popular tactics for nonprofit organizations around the winter holidays is to send note card freemiums. Marketers across sectors can gain insight from some of the best executed holiday note card efforts received by the Who's Mailing What! Archive this season, outlined below.
1. Use Children's Drawings to Warm Up Prospects
First up is a package sent in November by SOS Children's Villages, which provides care to children in need internationally. The first highlight of the package is the hand-drawn illustration on the front outer, which shows symbols of Christmas celebrations, including a tree, mistletoe and gifts. When you get inside the package, you learn that an 8-year-old participant in the program made the drawing, as it also is featured on one of the five unique note cards. Each card explains the organization's mission and gives the information of each child artist. In an effort to encourage response, the reply form for this package is renamed a "receipt verification" where prospects can check off "Thank You! I received my SOS Children's Villages holiday greeting cards," and also make a donation (Archive code #613-705743-0811).
2. Position Note Cards to Promote Word-of-Mouth
FINCA International sent a note card package in November, which was not holiday-themed, but instead focused on the organization's mission to provide micro-loans to low income entrepreneurs.Three note cards inside the package show women from different countries who are in business due to FINCA's loans, and their stories are outlined inside the cards. Craig Lamb, a consulting adviser to FINCA's fundraising program, says one benefit of the card package is it helps spread the word about the charity's good work through those donors who send the cards on to friends and family. That's why in the P.S. of FINCA's letter, donors are encouraged to "use the note cards I've enclosed to help spread the stories of these amazing women" (Archive code #605-637291-0811B).
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