Direct mail fundraising is counter-intuitive. Chances are that you, your board and others on staff have opinions about your direct mail program. And chances are even better (in fact, close to 100%) that most of those opinions, though strong, have no basis in fact and will do more harm to your fundraising than good.
Great direct mail fundraising strategy is destroyed every day in the nonprofit sector by well intentioned staff and board members who think they know something about direct mail but really don’t. If you (or your board or whomever) aren’t trained in the specific techniques of direct response marketing and fundraising then please, don’t make changes to your fundraising just based on feeling.
If you can’t get away from it, then please, test before you make any big changes. If your board member’s belief is validated through the test, then by all means roll it out and improve your overall fundraising results. But if testing proves the idea wrong, you then have the ammunition you need to ensure that the change isn’t implemented simply because someone up the food change “has a feeling” about the mail program.
Remember, you owe it to your clients to raise the most money possible for your cause, regardless of what your board members or other staff personally think of the process.