Before you consider launching an integrated marketing and fundraising campaign, there are some important factors to think about before you spend any money:

1. Think about who your target audience is
   This should be the first thing you think about, regardless of the number of channels in your campaign. Let your prospects and best donors inspire you to reach them where they are. Here’s a trick: Think about it from a day-in-the-life perspective. Do they get a paper before they leave the house? Do they commute? Are they in a car or on the subway? What do they see when they do leave the house? What sites are they on during the day? What do they do with their mail when they arrive home? What do they watch on television in the evening? Do you need to reach them in all of those places or can you afford to be more selective?
2. Understand what you’re trying to accomplish, then choose your channels carefully
   Folding a print ad up into a DM package is not an integrated campaign. Respect each channel for what it does best then develop creative that works hardest in each channel. For example, Print Ads are not response generating. They are used to generate awareness. DM motivates an action. The language should be different. The benchmark for success is different.
3. Ensure your brand is consistent
   Remember, whether your donor opens an envelope or sees a billboard with your message, it should feel to them like they’re being spoken to by the same voice.
4. Don’t let the creative idea overpower your message
   There are plenty of funny commercials on television and kooky things going on online that you enjoy while you’re engaging with them. The problem is what happens a day later. Can you remember what the cause was? Can you remember what you were supposed to do? Did you do anything after seeing it?
5. Remember to ask them to act
   Radio and print ads are not typically response-generating vehicles, but there’s no harm in reinforcing the “ask” – even in an awareness channel. You never know when and where someone is going to see your message.