A bequest promotion programme often takes two to three years to show financial returns.
There are seven steps to setting up the necessary disciplines to ensure that your appeal
mailing programme has effective, well-presented themes and always gets into the mail
on time:

1. Prepare your full year’s mailing programme with timelines from first briefing to
   mailing date.
2. Prepare a checklist of items required to brief your copywriter and designer.
3. Call a meeting of key staff. Show them an example of a really good mailing package with an emotive theme, great copy and illustrations and a strong ‘ask’. Give your staff members the calendar and checklists and urge them to be on the lookout for stories, ideas and pictures for future appeals and newsletters.
4. Diarise to contact your team at least two weeks prior to each creative briefing deadline and remind them of what they have promised to do.
5. Make sure that you send everyone examples of every finished mailing so that they can see what they have helped to create – and share the results of your mailing.
6. Keep abreast of new ideas and techniques by subscribing to fundraising publications.
7. Donate to other non-profits – particularly those who are providing similar services to your own. Use their mailings to draw comparisons with your own.

Once these disciplines are in place, you’ll be producing better, more
effective appeals that are always on time.