Non-Governmental Imagination

I spend a fair bit of time at work creating, editing and mailing newsletters that are sent out to our entire mailing list.  I also spend much less time writing and editing eNews publications which are emailed out to our contacts.  I have often wondered which is more effective, and which is the better use of my time.  Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog seems to have quite a strong opinion on the effectiveness of snail-mail campaigns to random people.  His argument seems to be that the groups that engage him as a real human being build a relationship, while others demonstrate that they apparently have too much time and/or money on their hands.

I think he’s right, I just would love to know the best way to engage people.  I feel like a younger donor base appreciates a more personalized and informal approach executed perfectly by Unitus with their holiday appeal post, but I think that older (read: richer) donors dig the heartstrings approach.  Quite a delicate balancing act, since NGO communications budgets aren’t huge unless you’re one of the Big Boys.

PS – I’m not a “Big Boy”, so any advice is always appreciated.