Here are five stratetegies for reaping the most value fr om your list-rental investment.

By Alicia Orr Suman

How E-mail Lists Are Different

When it comes to nonprofit list rentals, an e-mail list is much different from a regular direct mail list, says Tim Skennion, vice president of sales for NetCreations, an e-mail list provider in New York City. Why? First, and foremost, Skennion says, in the e-mail list world, you want to mail to opt-in names — something that’s not an issue for most postal direct mail efforts.

“In postal direct mail, you’re going to look at demographics and known donors. With our [opt-in e-mail] names, you’re renting names of people who’ve said, ‘I want to receive charitable solicitations.’ These people have opted in that they are interested in receiving information about children’s charities, health causes, social causes, etc.”

Mailers who use these types of interest selections and then cross-select by other characteristics such as age and geography really can zero in on their desired audience, Skennion says.

Another point of difference with e-mail nonprofit lists is that e-demographics also tend to differ somewhat from traditional list demographics for donors.

“You’re going to find a younger audience online,” Skennion says, noting that this could impact the type of offers and creative you want to use to speak to e-mail prospects.

Regardless of what age and interest donors you’re looking to solicit, the bottom line, Skennion says, is that e-mail names can be an integral and important part of any nonprofit’s campaign program. The low cost to put together a campaign plus the speed with which you can calculate the results make e-mail lists a great way to test into new markets and to build and add names to your own e-mail house file.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, for instance, has used e-mail to urge prospects to make a donation by buying a teddy bear online. The e-campaign, managed by NetCreations, not only achieved a 5 percent response, but it also helped the organization to grow its e-mail database for future fundraising efforts.

— A. Orr Suman

Renting lists for your mailing campaigns is a necessary — but inherently risky — expense. You’re spending money for an uncertain outcome because you can’t gauge exactly how names on a given list will respond at any particular moment.

So your priority in any list-rental situation should be to maximize return on investment. Here are five strategies for getting the most value out of your list-rental dollars:

Identify and mail the very best lists.
Uncover hidden list sources that might not have been tapped by everyone else.
Use selections, modeling and other tools to make those lists work optimally.
Demand the best pricing and deals from the lists’ owners/managers.
Avoid mailing at undesirable times.

Fundraising agency Craver, Mathews, Smith and Co., in Arlington, VA, works with major nonprofits, such as Habitat for Humanity International, and uses these strategies for all of its clients. Ellen Cobb Church, fundraising group director, explains how the list-selection and optimization process works for her nonprofit mailers.

“The first thing we do is look at historical data for each list and category. [Once the winning lists are chosen], we pursue other lists in those categories,” she explains.

Church works closely with her list broker, using a competitive analysis report to determine which lists similar-minded organizations are mailing as continuations.

“We also look at who is successfully mailing our clients’ files,” she adds.

Mail your ‘A’ lists first
The North Shore Animal League Association in Port Washington, NY, also first turns to donor lists that come from organizations that are as close to its mission as possible. These are the nonprofit’s “A” lists, or those prospect files that it tests and rolls out to most often because they have the greatest chance for success in bringing in new donors.

Lisa Wilson, director of development at NSALA, says she uses back-end analysis to identify the best lists to test.