Rick Martin, pastor of finance at Branch Creek Community Church in Harleysville, PA once lead a team of volunteers every quarter to print and mail their own offering envelopes to their members, a long and laborious process. He'd also get the group together to prepare and send letters to members - another painful experience that would often result in mixed up mail.
Rick and his team worked through their method until about a year ago, when he found AmericanChurch, Inc. (ACI).
"I love that ACI does the work for us. They have scaled down what was once a two week process into a two hour process," Rick says. "We are actually paying less for ACI to print and mail our offering envelopes bi-monthly than we are doing it ourselves quarterly."
To maximize the benefit of their Envelope Mail Plan, Branch Creek inserts a letter into their bi-monthly members' packets. By having ACI insert the letter, the church saves on postage costs. The letter also delivers a strong message to members about the power of their generosity.
"We borrow from the non-profit industry's practice of thanking and asking. For every time you ask, you thank twice," notes Rick. Most of Rick's letters feature stories that illustrate how the members' gift is used to impact others.
Branch Creek makes it easy for people in the pew to give by using custom Remittance Offering Envelopes. Rick notes that the full face design offers plenty of "real estate" for an effective message. The envelope can hold credit card information securely. Branch Creek adds to the security of the envelope by strategically placing pictures on the outside flap.
To see a sample of Branch Creek's remittance offering envelope, click here. The envelope showcases several ways that Branch Creek promotes generosity.
Are you realizing the communication benefits of inserting a letter into your envelope mail packets? Please share your story so others can too. Or do you get promotional value from an all purpose mail back remittance envelope? We'd love for you to spread the knowledge - how does it work for you?
