Spinning Date Into Donor Gold

Currently, CRS is pulling a .65 percent response rate from Catholic-oriented and international-relief lists. With its myriad compiled files, the organization is drawing close to a 0.4 percent response rate.

But Whorton is quick to underscore the economics and long-term benefits of employing compiled files to a prospecting program.

“We operate a ‘many are called, few are chosen program,’” Whorton avows. “We have found that the first gift an acquired donor gives is the best predictor of their lifetime value to our organization.”

Many faith-based charities fetch an average gift of $10 to $12 from a first-time donor, and while CRS is pulling down close to three times that, Whorton admits that response rates would be much higher if it offered a front-end or back-end premium to prospects represented on compiled lists.

“We know that churn is much higher with a premium-centric campaign,” Whorton says. “As long as we are performing at a fairly healthy rate, in our case about a 35 percent renewal rate from year one to year two, we know that those people who do upgrade aggressively have a lifetime value that is more than worth it for us.”

Untapped segments
Throughout the modeling process, CRS probed for new, largely untapped demographic slices that are uniquely attuned to international-relief issues. One segment discussed was the older Generation Xers.

But even with a clear desire to bring in younger donors — who have less disposable income and philanthropic indoctrination — Whorton says that any cultivation efforts through the mail can be risky.

“These prospects have a lower lifetime value and tend to be much more engaged and involved, which is a good thing and a bad thing for an organization,” he says, commenting on Generation X’s tendency to volunteer and to require more persuasion and motivation to give repeat gifts. “The bad thing is that the cost of servicing the donor is going to be much more expensive.”