A year-end letter goes out to 4,000 households. Six weeks later the development director asks a simple question: how much did it raise? If the appeal was set up loosely in Altru, nobody can answer without a spreadsheet and a lot of guessing. The mailing itself is the easy part. The real work is setting things up so every gift that comes back lands on the right appeal.
Below is how an appeal mailing typically comes together in Altru, in the order the decisions actually need to be made.
1. Create the appeal before you touch the list
Start in the marketing and communications area by creating the appeal itself: a clear name (for example, “Year-End 2026”), a description, a start and end date, and a goal if you track one. Everything downstream hangs off this record. Gifts get credited to it, reports group by it, and next year you’ll want to compare against it.
Agree on a naming pattern now. “YE26 Letter,” “Year End Appeal,” and “2026 Annual Fund – Dec” for the same campaign is how reporting falls apart. Pick one format and use it every year.
If you plan to split the mailing into versions (lapsed donors get a different ask than current members, say), decide whether those are separate appeals or one appeal with distinct segments. Altru’s appeal mailing tools support segmenting a mailing, but the exact options vary by how your database is configured. If you’re unsure, build a small test mailing first and see how it reports before committing the real one.
2. Build the audience with queries
Your mailing list should come from a saved constituent query, not an ad hoc export. A saved query can be rerun, audited, and reused next year. A typical year-end audience might combine:
- Donors who gave in the last 24 months
- Current and recently lapsed members
- Households with a valid mailing address
Then build the exclusions as their own queries so you can see exactly who’s being removed:
- Constituents marked deceased
- Anyone with a “no mail” or “no solicitation” preference
- Donors who already gave to this appeal (useful for a second mailing)
- Major gift prospects who will get a personal ask instead
- Board members and staff, if they receive a separate letter
Households matter here
The most common complaint about appeal letters is a couple receiving two copies. Make sure your query returns one record per household, using the household’s primary member or the household itself, depending on how your organization records giving. Run a quick count of records with the same address before you export. If the number is larger than you expected, you probably have duplicate constituents to clean up, and that’s worth doing before the letters print.
3. Produce the letters
Most Altru shops produce appeal letters one of two ways:
- Altru’s own letter and mail merge tools. Set up a letter template with merge fields for addressee, salutation, and any giving history you want to reference, then generate the output from your appeal mailing.
- Export to a mail house. Export the query results (name, addressee, salutation, address, plus a constituent ID or lookup ID) and send the file to your printer or mail vendor.
Whichever you choose, check the salutations and addressees before anything prints. Pull 25 random records and read them out loud. Blank salutations, “Dear Mr. and Mrs.” on a single donor, and business names in a personal greeting all show up here, and they’re far cheaper to catch on screen than on paper.
4. Put a code on the reply device
This is the step that makes the whole thing measurable. Print the constituent’s lookup ID and an appeal or segment code on the reply card. When the envelope comes back, whoever enters the gift can find the right constituent instantly and credit the right appeal without guessing.
If you split the mailing into segments, give each one its own code. That’s how you learn whether the lapsed-donor version actually outperformed the general one.
5. Enter gifts against the appeal
When checks and reply cards arrive, enter them in a revenue batch and set the appeal on each gift. Many teams set the appeal as a batch default for mail returns so it can’t be skipped. Online gifts are the usual leak: if the letter sends people to a donation web form, make sure that form is tied to the same appeal, or set up a dedicated form for the campaign. Otherwise web gifts show up with no appeal attached and the mailing looks less effective than it was.
Agree on a rule for gifts that arrive without a reply card. Common practice is to credit the appeal if the gift comes in during the appeal window from someone who was on the mailing list. Write the rule down so everyone entering revenue applies it the same way.
6. Report on results
Once gifts are tied to the appeal, reporting is straightforward. Build a revenue query filtered to the appeal and look at:
- Total raised and number of gifts
- Response rate (gifts divided by pieces mailed)
- Average gift, by segment if you coded segments
- Cost per dollar raised, using your print and postage invoice
Save that query. Next year, swap the appeal and you have a year-over-year comparison in minutes.
Before you mail: a short checklist
- Appeal record created with a consistent name and dates
- Audience and exclusion queries saved and counts reviewed
- One piece per household confirmed
- Salutations and addressees spot-checked
- Reply device carries lookup ID and appeal or segment code
- Web donation form linked to the same appeal
- Gift entry staff know which appeal to use and the rule for uncoded gifts
Quick answers
Do I have to use Altru’s appeal mailing feature, or can I just export a list?
An export works fine for producing letters. What matters for reporting is that the appeal record exists and every gift is credited to it. The mailing tools add convenience and segment tracking, but the appeal on the gift is what makes results measurable.
Can I add a gift to the appeal after it was entered?
Generally yes, by editing the revenue record. If many gifts were entered without an appeal, run a query for gifts in the appeal window with no appeal set and fix them before you report results.
