Direct mail fundraising is a numbers game. A game that changes all the time. Who could have predicted the advent of online giving? Or the popularity of sweepstakes? Or the rise of a generation of young donors whose primary method of communication is text messaging?

When I say that the direct mail game changes all the time, I am not referring to the fundamentals, of course. Donors will always give to people to help people. The most important word in a fundraising letter will remain