Comparing Membership Renewal Letters: What Other Orgs are Including

I am a member of a couple local nonprofits and recently received my membership renewal request. While the organizations are quite different, their letters had quite a bit of overlap. I wondered if this was the case for most nonprofits; I was curious as to how they chose to appeal to their members. Did they use images or stories? Did they list out the benefits? Did they tell members how their dues were used? To learn more, I reached out to our membership managers and requested samples of their membership renewal letters. Here's what I found:

Enclose a Form & Renew Online

88% of the letters included a form for members to fill out and mail back to the org to renew. But only 50% made mention of the ability to renew online.

Mention the Benefits

I assumed that 100% of the letters would include a reference to the benefits of membership - but only 66% did. While those letters made mention of free admission, discounts offered, or member-only events, only 1/3 listed out the actual benefits - 10% off merchandise, 2 free guest passes, 20% off rentals, etc.

Thank You

Roughly half of the letters thanked the members for their contribution. They went on to update the members with what their offering accomplished in the last year - mentions of revenue goals met, new exhibits, and new buildings.

Encourage Early Renewal

1/3 of the letters included an incentive to renew early. Some offered a discount on the membership itself, while others offered commemorative posters ($20 value) or free guest passes ($15).

Make It Personal

Merge fields in Altru give the possibility of making your membership renewal letters personal. You can include name, address, and salutation to start - so you're not just mailing "Member." You can go even include the current membership level and expiration date. Additionally, you could thank them for their years of membership, by using the original join date merge field. 2/3 of the letters were personalized with merge fields.

Renewal or Upgrade

This is a tricky one. Are you wanting your members to renew their current level, or would you like them to upgrade to the next level? Only 1 of the letters encouraged members to move from their current level (using a merge field) to move to the next one (another merge field). If you choose to go this route, I would suggest listing out the additional benefits that come with upgrading.

If you're interested in adding more data to the study, please email me your membership renewal letters. I will continue to compare as we have more sources!