Is Direct Mail Still Worth It?

Combines three earlier posts: “Common Threads: Donor Acquisition” (LinkedIn, December 12, 2014), “Making the case for acquisition mail” (LinkedIn, August 14, 2015) and “Retention or Acquisition? Maximizing your ROI.” (knowgood.ca, September 11, 2023)

Updated September 2026

Some years ago, over coffee, a colleague told me their charity had dropped mail acquisition entirely and gone all-digital. I understood the appeal. I also knew their donor file was about to get older and smaller.

Every charity loses donors. People move, retire, change priorities and, eventually, pass away. So every charity needs to keep finding new ones – which brings us to the question I still hear most often: is direct mail still worth it?

My answer is yes, for most Canadian charities, with a plan for when the mail stops.

Mail still works, with a backup plan

Direct mail still works, especially for donors over 65. In 2022, nearly half of every dollar donated in Canada came from that group. It has also become riskier. Postal strikes in late 2024 and fall 2025 hit charities during their busiest giving months, and Canada Post is moving through a major federal overhaul, including a shift away from door-to-door delivery.

Keep mailing, and build campaigns that can survive a disruption:

1. Tell the same story in several places. Mail, email, social and your website should carry one message to the same audiences at the same time.
2. Make online giving fast. A donor should be able to give from their phone in about a minute. Test it yourself.
3. Have a backup plan. Know in advance how you will reach mail donors if the mail stops – a phone call, an email, a text.
4. Test your mix. The right split between print and digital depends on your donors. Your own results will tell you more than any rule of thumb.

Keep the donors you have, and keep finding new ones

It costs less to keep a donor than to find one. That has been true for my whole career. But retention alone won’t hold your revenue steady anymore.

The number of people giving keeps falling. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project, which tracks giving across thousands of US charities and is the closest thing we have to a North American benchmark, reported that donor counts fell again in 2025 – by 3.6%. Overall retention sits around 43%. And turning a first gift into a second one remains, in their words, the most consequential unsolved problem in the donor pipeline.

So plan for both:

1. Fund retention first. Thank people well, report back on what their gifts made possible and invite them to give again.
2. Fund acquisition every year. Treat it as an investment in next year’s base, with its own budget line and its own targets.
3. Plan the second gift before the first one arrives. The welcome journey for a new donor – the thank-you, the first update, the second invitation – is where acquisition pays off.

Introduce yourself the way you’d want to be introduced

Years ago, someone told me that if I could make a person cry, I had a new donor. I’ve also taken calls that tried to guilt me into giving – “You care about kids with cancer, right?” – from someone who couldn’t tell me who they represented. I hung up.

A first contact is an introduction. It works best when it is warm, clear and generous. When I built acquisition campaigns, the pieces that did best followed a simple shape:

1. A bold opening that makes the reader stop and think.
2. A few clear facts about what your community has already achieved together.
3. An invitation to join people like them.
4. The difference their gift can make.
5. A way to learn more and a simple way to give.

When I was with the Missing Children Society of Canada, we talked about the children who came home. We showed people what their community was already making possible and invited them to be part of it. That message built donors who stayed.

A few things I include in every acquisition piece:

1. Some urgency, with no guilt. Giving should feel good.
2. The hopeful outcome. Show the result your work produces.
3. An easy way to ask questions. Assume a new reader has some. Give them a phone number and a web address.
4. A consistent way to give – online, by phone or by mail.
5. The word “please.”

Try this

Pull your list of first-time donors from last year. How many gave a second time? Now look at what each of them received from you between the first gift and the second ask. That gap is where your next dollar of investment belongs.

Be well.

Sources

1. Association of Fundraising Professionals, Fundraising Effectiveness Project Q4 2025 report (April 2026) – https://afpglobal.org/news/fundraising-effectiveness-project-reports-strongest-revenue-growth-five-years-even-fewer
2. Future of Good, Charities to stick with direct mail fundraising for older donors after Canada Post disruption – https://futureofgood.co/charities-to-stick-with-direct-mail-fundraising-for-older-donors-after-canada-post-disruption/
3. ITIF, Reforming Canada Post for a Lower-Volume Era (April 2026) – https://itif.org/publications/2026/04/01/reforming-canada-post-for-a-lower-volume-era/