Advice You - Business

Dear Friend:

Don’t do it.

Don’t start your fundraising letters with “Dear Friend.”

After all, when was the last time you received a letter from someone dear to you, addressing yo

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

u as “Dear Friend?” Never, right? The days of the Dear Friend letter are dead. So let’s bury the Dear Friend letter together.

I heard recently of a chairman of the board of a natio

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

nal charity who has given his charity millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of his time, yet he still receives their fundraising appeals addressing him as “Dear Friend.” Ouch.

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

Your fundraising letters are intended to make friends as well as solicit funds. So don’t send form letters to make friends. Friends write personal letters. Letters addressed to thei

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

r friends by name. My wife never sends me a letter that begins, “Dear Friend.” Neither do my friends. And neither should you when writing to your donors.

I realize that personaliza

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

tion costs more. I know that you save money if you send everyone the same Dear Friend letter. You don’t have to insert custom fields into your letter. You don’t have to perform a ti

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

me-consuming mail-merge. You don’t have to match the addresses on your letters with the addresses on your reply cards and mailing envelopes (assuming you are using closed-face envel

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

opes).

You can compare your costs for mailing a personalized letter versus mailing a Dear Friend letter, and you’ll also find that the Dear Friend letter is cheaper. But I’d like t

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

o suggest, and so I will, that you are measuring the wrong thing.

Return on investment shouldn’t be your only criteria for measuring the success of your fundraising letters. What

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

about donor loyalty? What about donor attrition? What about the lifetime value of each donor? What about plain old courtesy?

Donors stop giving for any number of reasons, but at th

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

e top of the list is feeling unappreciated. Think of that chairman of the board that I mentioned a minute ago. Can’t you just hear him saying to himself, as he receives yet another

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

Dear Friend appeal, “I have given this charity millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of my time, and they treat me as though they don’t even know my name”?

Yes, Dear Friend let

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ters are expedient. But expedience is not your only aim in running a successful fundraising letter program. Robbing banks is also expedient, but it’s not right. Using guilt as a mot

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ivator in your letters is also expedient. It raises funds in the short term. But it’s not right. And starting every letter with Dear Friend is more expedient than customizing each l

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

etter, but it’s not the right thing to do.

You should bury the Dear Friend letter because it is impersonal and rude. It alienates perfectly nice donors, people who will continue to

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

support your organization with their treasure, time and talents if you will only treat them as partners and not as automated bank machines. Addressing your donors by name makes the

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

m feel special and appreciated.

At the Business Depot where I buy my office supplies, there is a store clerk who always remembers my name. She serves hundreds of customers. Yet whe

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

n I approach the cash, she makes me feel like I’m a special customer. I feel a little flattered every time. Her name, by the way, is Allyson.

Specialists in customer service have l

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ong known that remembering a customer’s name—and using it—is one of the most effective ways (and free ways) to encourage repeat business, customer loyalty and free word-of-mouth adv

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ertising. The same is just as true in fundraising, although I have no empirical studies to back that up.

Please don’t start your letters with Dear Friend. Donors take it personally

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Advice You - Dear Friend: Don't Start Your Non-for-profit Fundraising Letters As A Stranger

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