One of the things that I often say in my talks is that direct mail prospecting is not working the way that it used to. Organizations that have used direct mail as a reliable way to continue to replace old donors have notices a drop off in the impact of direct mail. Already dealing with low margins, a small change in the return on direct mail solicitations can put your campaign under water.

We see this as a big reason for the growth of See3 – people are coming to us looking to build online capacity to identify and capture new supporters.

The Republican direct mail firm BWM Direct seems to buck the trend. It seems they use straw-men/women candidates to raise large amount of money from older Republican donors – then keep all but a single percentage for themselves. Here’s Joshua Micah Marshall talking about this story: