Thursday January 16- The postal strike

Hi !

⏩️ The Microwave: TL;DR version

What would happen if there was no mail delivery? How would that affect your year end campaign?

170,000 Canadian nonprofits had to deal with this at the end of 2024. Solutions include:

• Boosting email and text use

• Calling people

• Arranging in person meetings

See the main course section for more about this week’s pain point.

🍷 Drinks: Your outlook

🥗 Appetizer: Nice to meet ya!

For those who don’t know me…

My name is Ephraim Gopin. I’ve been a nonprofiteer for the last 25 years. I was a CEO, fundraiser, grant writer, event director, marketer, comms and alumni director. Today I head my own agency, 1832 Communications.

I know all too well the frustrations and challenges you face. As if being overworked and underpaid wasn’t enough, you’re constantly putting out fires and it’s stressing you out.

That’s why I created this enews. To dive into nonprofit pain points and convert them into opportunities for growth. I’d like to turn the poverty mindset the sector “loves” so much into one of growth.

Thrivalists take problems, analyze them, find solutions and then implement them. But it’s not just about solving issues. It’s having an attitude of we’re gonna succeed and grow our organization. I’m here to help you grow, one step at a time.

Let’s dive into this week’s pain point!

Main course: Neither ⛈️ nor ❄️ will stop them. But a strike? We’re screwed!

Have you ever played the “What If” game at your nonprofit? You come up with a constraint or a scenario that seems implausible but the job of those playing is to think creatively, imagine possibilities and figure out how to overcome the problem.

For example: What if mail delivery just stopped? Sounds farfetched but Canada’s 170,000 nonprofits just played the What If game IRL. They went to hell and back caused by a postal strike at the worst possible time: Year end.

When I asked my Canadian colleagues what was happening at nonprofits because of the strike, two words kept popping up: Chaos and panic.

You could say this is what happens when you put your eggs in one basket. When a great part of your budget depends on one event- year end campaign- that’s not a smart way to run an organization. In fact, conducting your big annual campaign in February and March- when almost no one else is competing for donor dollars- would be something worth trying.

But that goes against one of the sector’s long held beliefs: Do as we’ve always done. 🙄

The consultant in me might say: This is exactly why you invest in things that need boosting and upgrading. For example, investing in your email fundraising and marketing program in 2023 would have paid great dividends in 2024 in regular times and definitely during a postal strike. An effective email plan which engages readers means a postal strike wouldn’t hurt as bad.

Spend a buck today to make two tomorrow is one path to growth mode.

Let’s think this one out together. The strike began on November 15 and no one knew when it would end. (It ended on December 17.)

• If your organization had yet to mail your direct mail appeal, you were stuck

• If your organization had recently dropped off your appeal at the post office, those letters were sitting at the post office and going nowhere

• If your organization was very organized and your appeals had been mailed and delivered before the strike, anyone who wanted to send a check as a gift couldn’t

What options did orgs have? More email blasts. More texting. In person meetings. Phone calls. Zoom chats. Get creative and do what Brad did.

There are options! Will they be as successful as the king, direct mail? Possibly not. But sitting around and complaining doesn’t pay the electricity bill.

Then there was Shalem. My friend Jim- one of the best and most dedicated fundraisers out there- told me what an Ontario nonprofit did. They turned a 💩 pie into 🌈 and 🦄.

They took their direct mail appeal, put it in envelopes and

• Sent volunteers to hand deliver them to people’s houses

• The volunteers didn’t just drop it in a mailbox. They rang the doorbell and when possible, they had short conversations with people

• I don’t know what those chats were like but imagine if volunteers thanked people for previous gifts and then discussed the importance of the current year-end campaign.

Jim’s friend Amy shared the packet with him. Take a look at what Shalem did on the front of the appeal:

Amy had attended a recent Shalem event. A little handwritten note on the appeal is a nice touch- lead with gratitude and remind them of the event.

The packet they delivered included a reply card which mentioned the strike. They added a QR code and encouraged people to give online.

Rather than panicking, they turned a major pain point into a growth opportunity.

Asking people to donate this year online because of the strike? Simple solution which can bring great results.

Personal visits and handwritten notes? That’s how you build relationships. That’s how you retain supporters and grow.

I have no idea how their year-end campaign fared. But to every Canadian NPO who didn’t panic but figured out solutions, kudos!

🍟 Side dish: A little of this and that

Here’s some great content for you to learn from:

1. How to transform new donors into lasting partners (Hands On Fundraising)

2. Setting realistic fundraising goals in 2025 (Causevox)

3. Create a volunteer engagement strategy that works (Wild Apricot)

🧁 Dessert: OY!

First, if you and/or your loved ones have been affected by the LA fires, we are all thinking of you and hoping you are safe.

In this section I’ll share with you examples of what to do and what not to do. The example I’m gonna share this week is a big no no.

On Sunday, an enews publisher sent their enews with the following headline:
News so hot, that it burns.

Not great.

Later that day the publisher sent an apology email. They had queued up the email a week earlier, before the fires started. He apologized for the insensitive and tone deaf headline. (The publisher mentioned that he is a resident of LA but was so focused on the fires that he didn’t make the connection between the headline and the news.)

I’m not here to berate the publisher. But this is a teachable moment: If you schedule emails and/or social media posts, put on your calendar to check them again before they get sent. See what’s going on in the news. Make sure your content won’t be viewed by readers as insensitive.

🥪 Midnight snack: Get noticed in the feed

In Canada they love to ice skate and play hockey. And if they can do both on a frozen pond outdoors, all the better.

This account on Twitter did a smart thing: They posted a reminder of ice safety tips. But would the verbiage be enough to get people to stop their scroll and read the tweet? Maybe not. So they added an EXCELLENT explainer image to the post.

Humor works and it’ll get noticed.

I’ll be back next Thursday. Have a great weekend!

Ephraim Gopin
Nonprofit expert and strategist
Taking your organization from survival to thrival
Say 👋 on LinkedIn

P.S. I listened to Toto’s “Africa” on an endless loop while working on the enews. For those who don’t know, I’m obsessed with that song.