How Print Fulfillment Supported 6X Calendar Sales Growth

The Aldo Leopold Foundation carries forward the legacy of conservationist Aldo Leopold through education, stewardship and public engagement. Its annual phenology calendar is one way the Foundation turns that mission into a practical fundraising and awareness tool.
Released each fall, the calendar pairs local wildlife photography with seasonal observations that encourage people to notice changes in the natural world throughout the year. Phenology—the study of recurring seasonal changes in plants and animals—is closely connected to Leopold’s legacy of observing and documenting the land.

The calendar is packaged with a custom envelope and a one-page glossy insert introducing the calendar and the Foundation’s mission. It serves several roles at once: generating fundraising revenue, remaining a consistent seller in the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center bookstore and giving the organization another way to connect with top donors around the holidays.

The calendars had been part of the Foundation’s fundraising program for years, but in 2017 ALF brought design and content curation in-house and began looking for a new production partner.

As an environmentally conscious nonprofit, the Foundation needed a local commercial print partner that could balance quality, budget and reliable turnaround. Just as important, the team needed detail-oriented service and consistent quality control for a product that represents the organization to donors, bookstore customers and supporters across the country.

Before 2020, a limited-term employee handled calendar packaging and mailing in-house. Then several changes arrived at once: ALF tested a presale campaign, public interest in outdoor activities and Foundation programming increased and fewer employees were onsite to manage a larger number of orders.

The presale was successful, but it also made the fulfillment question more urgent. The organization needed a practical way to get thousands of calendars packaged, mailed and stored without pulling limited staff away from mission-focused work.

Beginning in October 2020, ALF added a month-long presale period to its calendar marketing. The presale gave the team a clearer production count up front and made larger initial print quantities possible, helping improve production economics while creating inventory for later orders.

Thysse expanded its role beyond production and brought the program into its fulfillment services workflow. Calendars, inserts and envelopes were produced at Thysse, then sorted, assembled and mailed to presale recipients. Remaining inventory was stored for recurring weekly fulfillment after the presale period.

Production: Calendars, inserts and envelopes were produced at Thysse.

Assembly: Components were sorted and inserted into mailing envelopes.

Distribution: Presale orders were mailed to ALF recipients, with remaining inventory held for later weekly orders.

Previous campaign performance helped inform how much inventory to hold. Thysse also incorporated USPS Informed Delivery® into the mailing program so subscribers could anticipate when the new calendar was arriving.

With a better read on presale demand and repeat customers, ALF could produce at a higher initial volume. That helped reduce per-calendar production cost and improve margin. Mailing in bulk also created opportunities to prepare the pieces for USPS automation and capture postage efficiencies.

The operational impact mattered just as much. Moving storage, assembly, mailing and recurring fulfillment to Thysse reduced the time ALF staff spent coordinating vendors and handling individual orders, giving the team more time for education, community engagement and mission work.

The workflow continued even after onsite staffing returned to normal. From Thysse’s first year on the project through 2022, ALF’s total annual calendar sales increased by about six times.

For ALF, the calendar is more than a product. It is a fundraising tool, a donor touchpoint and an invitation to pay closer attention to the natural world.

Landowner Education and Services Associate Emily Oyos described the calendars as a way to continue Leopold’s legacy of phenology record keeping while encouraging people to notice what is happening in nature around them.

By moving the logistics behind that program to a partner that could print, store, assemble and distribute the calendars, the Foundation gained capacity without losing the meaning behind the project. Successful calendar sales continue to support ALF’s broader work connecting people, land and community.