For those of you who haven’t spent much time on the phone with me while unraveling one of the many mysteries FundRaiser may present us, I’m an old-fashioned girl. I cook most everything from scratch, make cheese, and sew some of my own clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I like electricity and indoor plumbing as much as the next girl, but I feel strongly that technology should be a helper, not the sole reason for doing something.

 

One of those outdated activities I stubbornly cling to is writing and mailing letters. I love the crisp smell of paper and the smooth feel of a good pen rolling along the page as I pour out pieces of myself. My thoughts seem to flow more smoothly and I can say things in a letter I would never say out loud. Everything I want to say becomes clearer and more ME.

There’s no denying an email is faster and posting on Facebook lets you tell a lot of people something with very little effort, but they lack the feeling of connection one gets from a mailed letter. While a handwritten letter is particularly personal, even a printed letter feels more real than the most carefully worded email. A letter is something real, something one can touch and was touched by the person who sent it. It tells people they are important enough for you to take the time to write, address, stamp and send a letter to them.

Those of you who use FundRaiser’s mailing features already know that it is quick and easy to send a personalized fundraising letter to any donor, member, or volunteer. But did you know we can help you make sure it gets to where it needs to go?

Your FundRaiser technical support team can help you make sure every letter counts by assisting you in an NCOA address check and merge. The process is simple and generally takes one to two days. We will export your database in NCOA format, send the data to be analyzed, and merge your new addresses back in. After all, for your fundraising letters to be effective, they have to get there!

If you have any questions or would like to discuss an NCOA address check in more detail, please call us at 800-543-4131.