Accordion fold: Two or more parallel folds in a letter so it opens like an accordion.

Acquisition mailing: A fundraising package mailed to prospects to acquire them as new members or donors.

Active donor: A donor whose last gift was received within the last 12 months. Some organizations stretch that time period out to 18 or 24 months.

Address accuracy: The percentage of matches that a database attains when compared with a national address database.

Address block: The format in which name and address are printed on top of letters.

Addressed Admail: Canada Post Corporation's category for bulk or third-class postage that applies to large quantities of identical pieces that are prepared for mailing before being delivered to the post office.

Address service requested: A message appearing on mailing envelopes that authorizes the post office to charge the sender a fee for providing a new address (where known) of a donor or member no longer at the address on the mailing piece.

Annual appeal: Either the only fundraising letter, or the most important fundraising letter, mailed during the year, usually by organizations that do not have a direct mail fundraising program. Usually mailed at Christmas.

Annual fund: Gifts received by a non-profit organization to support (in whole or in part) yearly budgets and general operations.

Ask: The request or appeal being made in a fundraising letter. Often called "The ask."

Ask string: In a fundraising letter, the sequence of values found on the reply card that lets donors chose the amount they wish to donate, usually expressed in a currency. For example: $25 [ ] $35 [ ] $50 [ ] Other ______

Attrition: Loss of donors because they die, move, lose their job, change their giving priorities or for other reasons can no longer donate.

Attrition rate: The rate at which donors do not renew their gifts, usually expressed as a percentage of active donors.

Average gift: In a direct mail fundraising campaign, the total money received divided by the total number of gifts received.

Back end: All the activities necessary to receive, process and receipt a gift once it has been received.

Back-end premium: A free gift offered to donors in exchange for a donation, often a donation above a stated amount.

Bangtail: Promotional return envelope featuring a perforated slip of paper beneath the flap. Readers tear off, complete and include this slip in the return envelope.

Bind-in: A promotional reply device or order form that is stitched into the gutter of a print publication, such as a donor newsletter or annual report.

Bingo card: A reply card inserted in a magazine and used by readers to request free samples and literature from organizations who advertised in the issue. Many advertisers are listed on the reply card. Readers circle the advertisers they are interested in (much as bingo players circle winning numbers on their bingo card).

Bleed: In printing, the extension of colour to the edge of the page, accomplished by printing on oversized paper and trimming the excess.

Blow in: A promotional card inserted into a magazine during assembly (which falls onto the floor as you read the magazine).

Bounce: An email message returned to the sender with a notice indicating why the transmission failed (messages commonly bounce because the email address of the addressee is incorrect or is no longer active).

Bounce rate: In email fundraising, the percentage of visitors to a website who leave (bounce away) without getting any deeper into the site. Each page has its own bounce rate.

Breakeven: Donations received equal cost of the mailing.

Broadside: A single sheet of paper, printed on one side or both, folded for mailing or direct distribution, and opening (much as a broadside daily newspaper does) into a single, large advertisement.

Buckslip: Slip of paper the size of a dollar bill, inserted into a direct mail fundraising package, reiterating the main points of the letter, or describing something else, such as planned giving or monthly giving opportunities.

Business Reply Card (BRC): A card included in a mailing to simplify reader response. One side contains a response form that the donor completes, the other side features the return address and pre-paid postage.

Business Reply Envelope (BRE): A self-addressed envelope whose postage is paid for by the organization that prints it.

Caging: The process of recording gift amount, date of gift, donor name and other data from a direct mail fundraising campaign. Taken from the 19th Century post office practice of placing sorted mail into small wire enclosures, called cages.

Call to action: Copy that encourages the reader to respond, and describes how (by mailing in a reply card or phoning a toll-free number, for example).

Call out: A short section of copy, usually rendered in bold or larger typeface, and often set off from the main text, that emphasizes key points about the case for support, benefits of donating, or other key messages.

Carrier: The envelope that contains the letter and other contents of your direct mail message. Also called a carrier envelope or outer envelope.

Carrier Route Presort: In Canada, mail that is sorted before delivery to Canada Post, arriving at the post office in bundles assigned to the routes that each letter carrier walks, and qualifying the mailer for discounts on postage.

Cashiering: Processing and depositing donations received in response to a direct mail appeal.

Cheshire labels: Address labels printed on specially prepared paper and mechanically affixed to mailing envelopes one at a time.

Cleaning: The process of correcting or removing names from a mailing list.

Clickthroughs: Readers who have clicked on a tracked link in an HTML email message.

Closed-face envelope: An envelope that does not have a window.

Cluster selection: A list selection technique in which groups of names (clusters) are taken from a list in a series. A cluster selection on an nth name basis, for example, might select the first 10 names out of every 100 names.

Compiled list: Names and addresses that are compiled into a list from directories, newspapers, trade show registrations and other sources, to group prospects who share something in common.

Continuation mailing: Mailing a package to the remaining portion of a mailing list after having tested the package on a smaller portion of that list. See Rollout.

Control package: A direct mail package (usually a donor acquisition package) that is the best performing so far, and against which all new packages are tested.

Controlled circulation: Distribution at no charge of a publication (such as a trade journal) to individuals or businesses based on their job title or industry. Readers qualify to receive the publication based on their ability to purchase or influence the purchase of products and services advertised in the publication. (See Paid Circulation.)

Copy: The written portion—the words—of your direct mail fundraising package.

Cost Per Piece: Cost to produce each package (carrier envelope, letter, reply device, reply envelope) in a mailing. Usually includes writing, design, printing, list rental and postage. Calculated by dividing total mailing costs by the number of pieces mailed.

Cost to raise a dollar: Popular measurement used by fundraisers to gauge the cost effectiveness of their fundraising methods. Measures the amount that must be spent to raise one dollar of income. Calculated by dividing fundraising campaign costs by gross income.

CPM (Cost Per Thousand): One of the most common measurements in advertising and direct marketing. Tells you how much you must spend to communicate your sales message to one thousand people. The M in CPM stands for Mille, the Roman numeral used to represent 1,000.

Coupon: Slip of paper included in a direct mail fundraising package, which the donor completes and returns to the sender with a donation, usually in a postage-paid business reply envelope. Also called a reply device.

Data card: Detailed description of a mailing list, supplied by list brokers and list owners.

Decoy: A unique name inserted into a mailing list so that the list owner can verify that the mailing list is used according to the terms of the list rental agreement. If a non-profit organization mails letters to a rented list more times than it is allowed to, the list owner will know because the decoy names in the list will receive each mailing, and notify the list owner of what is going on.

Donor acknowledgement: The act of responding to gifts from donors, usually with a receipt or thank-you letter.

Donor acquisition cost: The cost of a mailing after gross income has been subtracted, divided by the number of donors acquired, and expressed in dollars and cents per donor acquired.

Donor conversion: The process of encouraging one-time donors (usually acquired through an acquisition mailing) to give again and become regular supporters of the organization.

Donor cultivation: The long-term process of nurturing donors towards higher levels of understanding, commitment and giving.

Donor file: A computer database containing the names, addresses and donation history of a non-profit organization’s donors.

Donor renewal: The process of approaching individuals who have given donations before, inviting them to renew their support with another gift.

Donor retention: The process of encouraging donors to remain active and continuing supporters of an organization.

Double Opt-In: The process of requiring subscribers to an email list to confirm their membership before being added to the list. Subscribers opt-in once by subscribing to the list, and opt-in the second time by confirming their subscription.

Drop date: The calendar date when a direct mail campaign is to be delivered to the post office for mailing.

Dupe: Short for duplicate. Identical or almost identical names that appear more than once in a mailing list.

Dupe rate: The amount of names in a mailing list identified as duplicates, expressed as a percentage.

Duplex lasering: Laser printing on the front and back of a letter or promotional piece, usually performed at the lettershop.

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT): The means by which a donor’s bank transfers a donation (usually monthly) from the donor’s bank account to the bank account of a non-profit organization that the donor designates.

Exchange: A transaction where two mailers exchange equal quantities of mailing list names.

File: A structured collection of customer records.

Flash count: Report that summarizes the results of a mailing over a given period of time, usually by response rate and average gift.

Former donor: Someone who has not made a donation for 24 months or longer. Not to be confused with a Lapsed Donor.

Frequency: The number of times a donor has given a donation within a given time frame.

Front end: All the activities (writing, designing, printing, mailing) necessary to generate a gift by mail.

Front-End Premium: An item (such as return address labels) offered to a donor in a direct mail package, usually at no charge, to encourage them to make a donation.

Fulfillment rate: The percentage of people who give a donation after pledging to do so, usually following a telephone solicitation that requests pledges instead of immediate cash gifts.

Fundraising ratio: The ratio used to gauge the cost-effectiveness of fundraising campaigns and programs, usually expressed as the ratio of cost to revenue or cost to raise a dollar.

Giving club: A society created by a non-profit that gives status and unique benefits to its members. Membership is restricted to individuals who give above a certain level.

Hand-match insert: The process of hand inserting personalized package elements, such as certificates of appreciation, into closed-face mailing envelopes.

Hard bounce: An email message that permanently fails to reach its intended recipient but instead returns to the sender. Causes include non-existent domains and the recipient being unknown.

Hotline list: The most recent names available on a list, typically names added within the last three months.

House list: A list of names and addresses that a non-profit has compiled from inquiries, donations or acquisition, used to request donations.

Independent Sector: The part of the economy consisting of non-profit organizations. Also called the Non-profit Sector.

Indicia: A unique printed artwork box in the top right corner of an envelope, authorized by the post office, indicating that postage has been paid by the mailer.

Ink-Jet Printing: Process performed by lettershop to quickly print donor name, address, keycode and other variable data on each piece of mail.

Involvement device: An element in a direct mail fundraising package that donors peel off, sign, cut out or handle with their hands in others ways. Involvement devices can boost response, and include surveys, petitions, stamps and stickers.

John Samples: Sample direct mail packages addressed to a fictitious John Sample of Any Street, Any City, and kept by the mailer as a record of the look and contents of each mailing.

Johnson Box: Copy placed at the top of an appeal letter and surrounded by a box or other graphic element, usually highlighting member benefits or the need, to persuade donors to read on. Named after Frank Johnson, American direct mail pioneer, who invented the device to promote magazine subscriptions in the 1970s.

Key code: A group of letters or numbers (or combination of letters and numbers), colours or other marks, usually placed on donation forms or reply cards, to help mailers measure the effectiveness of their mailing lists, asks, creative, timing and other variables.

Landing page: A web page where people go once they click on an online advertisement or search listing. In online fundraising, the landing page is usually the page where the donor makes a donation, having arrived there by clicking a link in an email appeal letter.

Lapsed donor: A donor who has not sent a gift during the last 12 months.

Laser printing: Process of personalizing direct mail letters and reply devices with information unique to each individual donor file, and usually performed by a lettershop on a commercial laser photocopier. Also called lasering.

Lettershop: A business that addresses, folds, inserts, sorts and applies postage to direct mail fundraising packages, and delivers them to the post office for mailing.

Lifetime value: The long-term value of a donor or member, such as the total revenue received during the time a donor or member is active. Useful when calculating how much to spend to acquire a new donor.

Lift note: Also called a lift letter. A second letter included in a fundraising package to reiterate the main points of the letter, or to give other reasons for making a donation. Often signed by a celebrity or person of influence.

List: Also called a mailing list. Names and addresses of individuals who share a common characteristic (such as all being women, or all being people who donate to organizations that protect the environment).

List broker: A specialist who helps a not-for-profit organization rent or borrow a list from a list owner (usually a business or another not-for-profit). Services include research, selection and recommendation of lists.

List compiler: An individual, service bureau or business that assembles mailing lists from directories, government records and other public sources.

List exchange: A transaction in which two organizations swap donor, member or subscriber lists, usually one for one, so that each organization can mail to the other organization’s list.

List maintenance: The never-ending process of updating and correcting donor records in a house list.

List manager: The organization or individual, often a list broker, that manages the promotion of a mailing list for rental or exchange.

List owner: The individual or organization that owns the right to rent or lend a mailing list.

List rental: The process of renting a mailing list for a one-time mailing.

List test: A mailing sent to a small, random sampling of a list (perhaps 10,000 names) to determine if mailing to the entire list will be profitable.

Live stamp: An ordinary postage stamp, sometimes affixed to a carrier envelope or reply device to boost response.

Membership renewal: A direct mail package sent to members of a non-profit organization, inviting them to renew their membership by paying their annual dues.

Merge dupes: Donors, members or subscribers whose names are found on two or more lists of prospective donors.

Multi-Donors: Donors, members or subscribers whose names are found on two or more lists of prospective donors.

Negative option: A direct mail buying option in which the donor agrees to receive and pay for products or services at regular intervals (such as receiving a book a month) unless the donor tells the not-for-profit in advance not to ship the product. (See Positive Option, below).

Nixie: A mailing piece returned to the sender by the post office because of an incorrect or undeliverable name or address.

Nth name: The method of testing the pulling power of a list by selecting and mailing to a representative sampling of the list. The list owner or broker selects every 5th name, 20th name or other variable (Nth name) that provides a valid representation.

Open rate: Number of emails opened by recipients, expressed as a percentage of total emails sent.

Overline: The headline in a letter, usually placed on a line over the salutation.

Offer: In traditional direct mail, the incentive that you give prospects to motivate them to respond to your mailing, either by placing an order or by taking the next step in the sales process.

One-time usage: The stipulation in a list rental agreement that the advertiser will mail to the names on the list once only. The stipulation in a list rental agreement that the advertiser will mail to the names on the list once only.

Package: Everything contained in a direct mail fundraising appeal, such as the carrier envelope, letter, insert, reply device, return envelope and premium.

Package test: Test in which two or more direct mail packages are mailed to statistically equivalent groups of individuals from the same list or lists to determine which package performs best (often measured in response rate and average gift).

Package insert: Any promotional piece included in a product shipment. It may be for refills and replacements from the same company, or for products and services from other companies.

Paid circulation: Distribution of a magazine, newsletter or other publication to individuals or organizations who have paid for a subscription. (See Controlled Circulation.)

Pass along: The readership of a newspaper, magazine or direct mail letter other than the addressee. In publishing, the pass along readership is always higher than the readership.

Peel-off label: A self-adhesive label enclosed in a mailing package, intended to be removed and attached to an order card.

Personalization: The process of customizing each package in a mailing so that each package contains information that is unique and personal for each recipient. Areas of personalization include name and address, salutation, and date and amount of last gift.

Piggy back: An offer that accompanies another offer, free of charge.

Pledge card: A printed notice mailed to individuals who pledge to donate to an organization, usually in response to a telephone appeal.

Poly bag: Transparent polyethylene (plastic) bag used instead of envelopes for mailing.

Positive option: A method of selling products and services using the same technique as Negative Option (see above) but requiring the customer to place an order each time.

Postage-paid envelope: A self-addressed envelope whose postage is paid for by the organization that prints it. Also called a Business Reply Envelope, or BRE.

Premium: An item offered to a donor, usually at no charge, to encourage them to make a donation. Premiums that are included in the mail package are called front-end premiums. Premiums that the donor must request are called back-end premiums.

Presort: Discount offered by post office to mailers who transport letters directly to the post office sorted in the order that they will be delivered by the letter carrier (usually sorted by postal code or zip code). Also called Letter Carrier Presort.

Pressure-Sensitive Labels: Mailing labels that do not require moistening before being affixed to an envelope. Also called peel-off or peel-and-stick labels.

Prospect: A person on a list who is considered to be a potential donor but who has not made a donation yet.

Prospect mailing: A direct mail appeal sent to prospective donors or members. Also called an acquisition mailing.

Purge: To remove duplicates or unwanted names from a mailing list.

Recency: The latest donation or activity recorded for an individual.

Record: A single, unique entry in a database with some or all of the fields specified. A record in a donor database, for example, contains the information for one donor, including such things as name, address and phone number. A record in a database is usually the equivalent of a row in a spreadsheet.

RFM: Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value, a formula used by direct mailers to calculate the income potential of names on a mailing list.

Renewal mailing: A direct mail fundraising package mailed to donors or members who have supported the organization’s work, inviting the donor or member to renew support with a donation.

Reply card: A card included in a mailing, which the donor completes and returns to the sender in response to the ask. Often postage-paid.

Response count: The number of responses received from a mailing, expressed as a total number rather than a percentage.

Response device: The coupon, order form or reply card that a donor completes and returns to the sender to complete a donation.

Response rate: The number of responses received from a mailing, expressed as a percentage of the total number mailed.

Return Postage Guaranteed: An endorsement printed on the face of envelopes stating the sender will pay the post office to return undeliverable standard (third-class) bulk mail.

Rollout: Mailing a package to the remaining portion of a mailing list after having tested the package on a smaller portion of that list. See Continuation mailing.

Salutation: The way in which the donor is addressed at the start of a letter ("Dear Tom" or "Dear Friend," for example).

Seeding lists: The practice of adding (seeding) unique names to a mailing list so that the list owner can verify that the list is used according to the terms of the list rental agreement. If a non-profit organization mails letters to a rented list more times than it is allowed to, the list owner will know because the seeded names in the list will receive each mailing, and notify the list owner of what is going on. Also called “salting lists.”

Segmentation: The practice of dividing mailing lists into segments (such as major donors, monthly donors, lapsed members) so that each segment receives a customized appeal letter.

Self mailer: A direct mail piece that mails without an envelope.

Sorting: Process of arranging envelopes in zip code or postal code order before mailing to improve delivery and, for large mailings, reduce postage costs.

Source code: A group of letters or numbers (or combination of letters and numbers), usually placed on donation forms or reply cards, and stored afterwards in  donor database records, to help mailers determine the list or segment of a list from which the donor’s name and address originated. Also called a key code.

Source code report: An analysis of source keys (key codes indicating the source of a list) that shows the profitability of each list used in a donor acquisition mailing.

Special appeal: A direct mail fundraising package, mailed to existing donors or members, inviting them to support a particular program, project or fund. Often mailed several times a year.

Split test: A test in which a direct marketer takes two or more samples from a list, each sample considered to be representative of the entire list, and mails a different package to each sample to test the effectiveness of each package.

Statement stuffer: A slip of paper, printed on one or both sides, and inserted into the envelope that contains a customer's bank statement. Also called a bill stuffer.

Swatching: Attaching samples of fabric (swatches) or material to a printed piece.

Sustainer Program: A program through which supporters of a non-profit organization give a regular donation automatically, usually by direct withdrawal from their bank account or credit card once a month. Also called a Monthly Giving Program.

Teaser: A phrase, or an image, or a phrase and an image, on a carrier envelope that arouses curiosity and motivates the recipient to open the envelope. Also called an envelope teaser.

Test mailing: The first appeal that a non-profit organization mails to potential donors, to discover if direct mail is a cost-effective way for the organization to acquire donors and raise funds.

Tip On: An item, such as a promotional piece or reply card, glued to a printed piece.

Token: A device that involves the reader in some way, often consisting of a perforated label that the reader removes from a sheet and sticks to a designated place on the order card, signifying a desire to buy.

Unique names: The names and addresses that remain after two or more mailing lists are merged and then purged of duplicate names and invalid addresses.

Universe: Total number of individuals that might be included in a mailing list, or all those who meet a set of specifications.

Upgrade: The process of persuading donors to increase the size or frequency of their gifts.

Window envelope: An envelope with a die cut hole on the face, covered with clear acetate, that reveals the mailing address, return address or special messages written on the enclosed materials.

This Direct Mail Glossary is updated weekly with a new definition. Check back soon!