Charities to stick with direct mail fundraising for older donors after Canada Post disruption
Why It Matters
Despite pushing for online donations or telephone appeals, several charities still found that direct mail as a channel was more likely to cut through the noise – and have no plans to shift away from mail fundraising even if there is another postal strike.
When the Canadian Union of Postal Workers went on strike at the end of 2024, many charities’ end-of-year fundraising goals got lost in the mail.
The Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP) recently reported that roughly half of charities saw “no noticeable impact” of last year’s Canada Post strike on their donations. However, a further 35 per cent reported a decrease in donations.
But the numbers are more stark.
While the exact loss and impact of the strike is difficult to quantify, research from CanadaHelps has estimated that the sector expected to receive $396 million in gifts during the strike period, exclusively through direct mail donations. Based on gifts that flowed online through CanadaHelps’ platform, they estimated that the sector saw only $130 million in online donations in this period.
This does not include cheques that were dropped off by donors or picked up by charities, bank transfers, or donations taken over the phone.
Relying on mail
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank, for example, was ahead of their annual donation target when the strike was first announced.
However, November and December are usually when the food assistance charity expects to have about 70 per cent of its annual donation income rolling in, said Julie Derksen, senior supporter relations manager.
“Our donors are disproportionately older than many other charities, and I would say we rely heavily on mail donations,” Derksen said.
Prior to COVID-19, 95 per cent of Canadian Foodgrains Bank donors contributed by cheque. While some converted to online and phone donations over the pandemic, around three-quarters of the charity’s donors still prefer to mail in their donations.
The postal workers’ strike forced the Foodgrains Bank to smooth out a previously “cumbersome” e-transfer process, Derksen added.
In the meantime, the charity emailed and called regular benefactors, and set up drop-off points for physical cheques.
Although the Foodgrains Bank didn’t manage to recoup all the forecasted losses during the postal strike, the extension in the tax receipt deadline announced by the federal government helped: Derksen said that more donations flowed through to the organization in January and February of this year than last year.
In collaboration with market research company Ipsos, CanadaHelps also found that nearly half of those who mail-in their donations had no plans to shift to online giving.
“It’s important to remember that much of the revenue that comes in through the mail and digitally tends to be undesignated revenue,” said Charlotte Field, partner and head of client delivery at Ottawa-based fundraising agency Good Works.
“It’s salaries, electricity and stuff that often is not covered by corporate partnerships or major gifts,” she said.
“Undesignated revenue is so important, and that is what really gets hit hard in a situation like this when annual giving comes down.”
Others said the charitable sector could have been more supportive of the strike, regardless of the impact on revenue.
“I believe the charitable sector should have released less negative press about the strike action, when one of the chief complaints by the [postal workers’] union is that their members are becoming reliant on programs like food banks,” said one respondent in the CICP’s research.
“Strike action supports us all.”
A generous generation: mail works for seniors
Field and her team help clients in the non-profit sector with multi-channel marketing strategies, including both print and digital products.
“There is a huge persuasive power that comes with direct mail. It’s a much less competitive space,” Field said.
“There’s all kinds of research about how mail activates your brain in a different way. You retain information better when you read it physically. It activates your sense of touch and depth, and so your brain is more emotionally engaged with the information.”
Derksen has also found that donors are more likely to respond to a direct mail appeal from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank than to an email request.
Nonetheless, charities found themselves forced to pivot when postal workers went on strike to advocate for better pay and working conditions.
Field supported clients in not only expanding their digital reach, but also implementing text programs.
“Our holiday period accounts for about 70 per cent of our annual donations, so it’s a big time for us,” said Lorraine Pennington, director of marketing and communications at Fred Victor, a Toronto-based charity serving the unhoused community.
Along with a text and email campaign – and some pro-bono radio space that the charity was given – Fred Victor also ran an additional January appeal for the first time, allowing them to take advantage of the extended tax deadline announced by the Department of Finance.
Respondents to the CICP’s survey said the strike also led to delays in receiving grant money in the mail and confusion around whether prorogation would impact the deadline extension. It was also unclear whether this extension was temporary or permanent.
“The intelligence we were getting from elected officials and in the media was that the federal government had extended the deadline from Dec. 31 to Feb. 28,, but it needed an act of Parliament to actually formalize it,” said David Gourlay, CEO of the Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation.
However, the Canada Revenue Agency proceeded to extend the deadline without the legislation in effect.
“To help provide certainty as we head into tax season, the CRA is confirming that it will proceed with administering the 2024 deadline extension for charitable donations. The CRA is administering this proposed legislation, consistent with its longstanding practice.”
Another organization supporting those experiencing homelessness and substance use in Ottawa, Shepherds of Good Hope prints and mails out seven direct mail campaigns every year. Each takes three or four months of work to design and produce, and collectively, the campaigns bring in around a quarter of the charity’s annual budget.
Like the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, seniors are the largest donor demographic for Shepherds of Good Hope.
When the strike was first announced, Shepherds of Good Hope was ready to send 12,000 pieces of direct mail to their supporters, partnering with a third-party provider to have them delivered.
There was a communication gap between when the extension was announced and when Parliament was prorogued in light of Justin Trudeau’s resignation as Prime Minister, Gourlay added.
Thankfully, he said, the campaign and storytelling material could be added to the charity’s virtual donation push. Combining that with phone calls to donors – and the returned flow of mail after postal staff were ordered back to work – Shepherd of Good Hope was able to raise its target budget.
Abandoning mail could restrict key donor group from giving
Once postal staff returned to work, charities’ appeals were delivered to donors and cheques began to flow back.
Lupus Canada was another charity whose fundraising efforts were adversely affected by the strike. In the period between the end of the strike and the extended tax deadline – Dec. 17, 2024 to Feb. 28, 2025 – there was a 50/50 split between the proportion of donations that came in through online channels in comparison to mail or telephone gifts, said Leanne Mielczarek, executive director of Lupus Canada.
Seniors continue to be the demographic that donates the most to charity, both in amount and frequency. According to data adapted from Statistics Canada, people over the age of 65 give an average $3,310. In comparison, people in the 35 to 44 age bracket give on average $1,850.
“For every $100 donated in 2022, $1 came from those aged 24 and younger, while $48 came from those aged 65 and older,” Statistics Canada found.
“Our direct mail is bringing in buckets and buckets of donations,” Gourlay said.
“So we’ll never push our donors to go fully online or digitize their donations, but we will do our very best to modernize our website and our donation portal to make it faster and simpler for those who make those choices.
“We are here to empower the donor to make their choices, because they are helping people who are experiencing homelessness.”
Gourlay added that Shepherds of Good Hope does not plan to shift away from any of the seven direct mail campaigns it currently sends out per year, despite the risk of another postal workers’ strike in May.
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