The Innovation of Envelope Design

The Backstory

For 40 years, Kelowna’s Gospel Mission has been feeding, housing and supporting the vulnerable to turn homelessness into wholeness. Frontier has had the pleasure of partnering with this transformational organization for the last four years.

Our main goal is to help organizations create lasting change. In order to make this happen, we focus on what we can do to ensure constant growth. This means we analyze every detail that goes into our client’s campaigns to ensure optimal donor engagement. Our experiments  compare and contrast different characteristics so that we are constantly providing the best results possible.

The results of some of our tests and innovations are shared in blog posts such as Behind the Design: A Case Study and Victoria Dandelion Society: A Case Study. Constant testing helps us to further tailor our strategies to our client’s individual needs. That’s why we’re sharing one of our most recent tests with you, today.

The Test

Here at Frontier, we get pretty excited about the design of envelopes. Why? Because the design of a sealable paper container could be the difference between obtaining a donation or not.

Generally, for Kelowna’s Gospel Mission newsletters, we create outer envelopes that are minimalist in design. This is because we send out five per year, alternating with fundraising appeals that have much more vibrant and colourful outer envelopes. It’s a subtle way of branding the newsletters differently so that donors recognize them as soon as they open their mailbox. (See image below.)


When we wondered whether we were missing out on a chance to share imagery on the newsletter’s outer envelope, we decided to conduct an A/B test! We were curious to see if adding a human face to an alternative newsletter envelope would be a motivator to open it up and see what was inside.

"We were wondering if adding a face, an emotionally stimulating, humanizing element, might increase donor engagement and donation revenue from newsletters.” — Chantal, Frontier designer

The image used on the alternative envelope is of a woman whose story is featured in the centrefold of the newsletter. She overcame obstacles and transformed her life with help from Harmony House, Kelowna’s Gospel Mission’s women’s centre. She appears smiling and content on the envelope, an accurate representation of her success story. (See image below.)

KGM-NL1802-OE-A 2.jpg

The newsletter itself was the same for both versions, thanking donors for their support, recapping the previous year with a few stories, and providing an update for future initiatives and programs. The mailing list was randomly split in half, with half of donors receiving the regular, stripped-back version, and the other half receiving the trial version with the image.


When the results came in, we saw a neck-and-neck race between donors receiving version A versus B. Without an indication of one version performing better or worse than the other, what we can do is retest. It’s the name of the game with data-driven fundraising. Even if the results had drastically favoured one version over the other, the nature of increasing donation revenue from a newsletter has a number of variables at play. In order to ensure that the results were an accurate reflection of the variables under assessment, we’d need to perform the same test again, to understand more fully what is happening and what is working.

This is just one example of the many tests we’re regularly running, to find out what’s working with our fundraising, and what might work better. Innovation is a process, and a process we take seriously! By understanding the psychology behind influencing a donor, we can further sharpen our skills and strategies to create incredibly impactful and long-lasting outcomes for our clients.

What’s Next

Newsletters do not typically raise as much revenue as more aggressive fundraising appeals. But while the focus in newsletters is generally on thanking donors, because recognizing their generosity is key to keeping them around, it’s not a waste of time to want more. We hope you’ll stay tuned for other innovations that we’re implementing in our clients’ newsletters!