THE BEST OF TIMES

The more personal the message, the more it lands

• In person: requests made face to face were about 34 times more successful than the same request sent by email. Roghanizad and Bohns, 2017more

  Forty-five people each asked ten strangers to fill out a short survey, half in person and half by an identical email. The askers expected email to work nearly as well. It did not: people asked face to face were about 34 times more likely to say yes. Published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

• By hand: a small handwritten sticky note lifted survey returns from 36% to 76%. Garner, 2005more

  Randy Garner mailed the same survey three ways: a plain cover letter (36% came back), a handwritten request on the cover letter itself (48%), and the same request on a handwritten sticky note (76%). The little human touch doubled the response. Published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

• On paper: direct mail drew a 9% response from house lists. Email drew about 1%. ANA/DMA, 2018more

  The ANA/DMA Response Rate Report measured mail sent to people who already knew the sender at 9%, and to brand new prospects at 4.9%, both the highest the report had recorded. Email, social media and paid search all sat around 1%.

• In the brain: paper takes 21% less effort to process than a screen, and is remembered better: 75% brand recall against 44%. Canada Post, 2015more

  Canada Post and True Impact Marketing tracked 270 people with brain sensors and eye tracking. Printed mail needed 21% less mental effort to understand than digital media, and a week later people recalled the sender 75% of the time after paper against 44% after a digital ad.

THE BEST OF TIMES

We help people put their social capital to work

We map and mine your network, dream up the approach, and deliver it by hand. Cold outreach, with warmth, from the first idea to the front door.

• Hosting a fundraiser? Heartfelt penned letters, on your behalf, to the hundred most influential people closest to you.
• Launching a book? The readers, reviewers and booksellers who matter hear from you, personally.
• A charity welcoming every newly retired professor in the United States, and inviting each one to volunteer.
• An educational group opening a warm line to the social media voices its cause needs.

Our team is full of ghostwriters and paper boys, with a lifetime of bringing heartfelt communications to large audiences.

THE BEST OF TIMES

≈750,000 restaurants in the United States, and every menu is one person's decision

People change their minds when someone kind shows up at the door. We show up.

THE BEST OF TIMES

≈1,000,000 people worldwide buy food for groups of a hundred or more

Schools, hospitals, stadiums, campuses, ships. That figure is our own careful estimate, and we say so.

THE BEST OF TIMES

905,413 Americans hold ten million dollars or more

Knight Frank counted them in 2025. If even one in a hundred cares deeply about animals, that is nine thousand people who deserve a beautiful letter.

THE BEST OF TIMES

≈9,000 law firms in England and Wales, their lawyers most concentrated in London

Influence gathers in places like this. So can warmth.

THE BEST OF TIMES

Local team caught practicing warmth on thousands of strangers

• Hand-delivered thousands of bananas with custom messages on the peel.
• Knocked on thousands of doors, and meant it every time.
• Direct mail. Engagement at events. Targeted outreach.

Small things, on purpose. Practice for the big ones.

THE BEST OF TIMES

Reader, you undoubtedly know someone

Someone who, if you connected with them, more animals would be helped. It is hard to say exactly how.

But think about how every collaborator in your life came into your life. It started with an initial connection.

This is your encouragement to go make one.