Focus On: Lists: Digging For Donors

Several notable nonprofits also are reaching out to the Spanish-speaking marketplace. Covenant House, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Oblate Missions and Salesian Missions are among them. One of the major advantages they have in marketing to Hispanics is that competition in the mailbox is almost nonexistent. Until others catch up, the handful of organizations that are marketing to Hispanics have a captive audience. Undoubtedly, that’s going to pay off.

Build a prospecting database using lapsed donors.
If you have a list of lapsed donors that you’re not mailing to and it’s archived somewhere, serving no purpose, getting older and less deliverable every day, you can do what Tufts University did.

The development office there created a revenue-generating enhanced file using current names and 10 years worth of inactive names. By combining the processing of the active names (being enhanced for rental purposes) with the processing of the inactive names (to be used for reactivation efforts), Tufts was able to negotiate with a major service bureau for no-cost address correction, National Change of Address and deceased screenings.

It was no surprise when nearly half of the inactive names were eliminated in the address-hygiene and deceased-screening processes. Statistically, more than 75 percent of the lapses should have moved at least once or passed away. The names that remained after the processing provided Tufts with a profitable new mailing universe.

Don’t cut a good list out of your mail plan just because you can’t get it on exchange.
Almost every fundraiser who exchanges has dealt, or will deal, with situations in which they’re denied names on exchange. It’s part of the territory. Perhaps an exchange cap is in place, and you’ve reached it. Or, maybe your list no longer works for the other list owner. Whatever the reason, you will be faced with having to rent.