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Moving to a new location - communication best practices

Tiffany Friend

Greetings. We are moving to a new location in mid to late July. Our Mailstop will be transferred so any mail received will be office mailed to our new location, but the address will not change with the post office. We are a big health system with multiple locations and addresses, so we are responsible for making sure our donors are contacted regarding the new address and mailstop since mail will not be forwarded until it reaches our old (current) location. What are some best practices for communicating with donors? Some questions I have:

Would a postcard or letter and email be appropriate? Cost is a factor, unfortunately, with any direct mail
How far in advance should donors be notified once the moving date is official? We know our new address and mailstop, but we aren’t actually transferring it over until an official date
What information did you filter out of your communication lists besides deceased? How far back did you go? Three years?
Anything we should be thinking about that isn't obvious?

Thank you for your replies!

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Comments

JoAnn Strommen

@Tiffany Friend Welcome to the BB Community forums.

I would not put the new address out to far in advance because mail sent before it's official with USPS could be returned to sender. That would cause even more confusion.

Do you have emails for most of your records? Obviously that is the most economical way to notify. Include in prominent spot in newsletters when official.
Do you have regular (monthly, quarterly, annual…) donors? Perhaps a postcard to a segmented audience. IMO, 3-5 years would be reasonable.

During the period of time when mail is forwarded to your new address, watch the address being used by the donor. We created a slip with updated address info that we would mail back to donor with their receipt letting them know of new address.

Dealing with charitable orgs/investment companies can be a challenge - hard to get the info to the right addressee sometimes. Even hard for constituent making the requested payment.

We still had some donors who used old address after forwarding ended and the mail was returned to them. Just had to work to inform.

Tiffany Friend

@JoAnn Strommen, thank you!

Appreciate this info. We have email addresses for a good portion, but a lot of our direct mail donors are missing email addresses. Our remit slip does have a spot to add that on, however.

I like the idea of including a slip with acknowledgments and receipts. This could help us reach those we are unable to. Most of our recurring donations are online, so those individuals could be emailed easily I'm thinking. We have two donors who send checks in monthly that we could reach out to indivdiually as well.

I'm thinking that our address won't actually be updated with USPS, as we are just a suite and mailstop connected to the organization and not the main/only address. That makes it tricker as all mail forwarding will rely on an internal process.

Faith Murray

@Tiffany Friend

Thank-you letter inserts and email notification are a must. However, thank-you inserts are reactive, not proactive, and emails as you say won't catch everyone. I would recommend a postcard mailing as well, at least for your 5-year donor list, plus an obvious notification on your website.

You don't want to use a letter, because open rates only average about 3-10% depending on the constitution of your list. A “We've Moved” postcard in this case is better because there is no sensitive information or persuasive ask, and your donors can't help but see the message blazoned across the front when they grab their mail.

Rachel Bailey

Hi @Tiffany Friend,

We moved offices about a year ago and will be moving yet again in about 18 months. Luckily we have a great Workplace Coordinator to project manage all of the logistics and here are some best practices she shared in response to your questions:

How
1. We did postcards, formal letters (where appropriate) and an email blast.
Timeline
1. Formal letters and postcards went out 2 months ahead of the move
2. Target detailed emails went out (example, people emailed their vendor contacts personally) 2 months ahead of the move
3. Basic details were added to email signatures 3 months ahead of the move
4. Post move email went out a couple weeks after we moved and once, we were settled.
Filter
1. Each team made their own data requests with their own parameters.
I think it is best to communicate multiple ways multiple times to ensure folks get the message.

Hope these are helpful and best of luck with the move!