American Cancer Society's Pioneering Decision: One Year Later

One year ago, I wrote an article that detailed what may be one of the boldest moves by a top brand in the nonprofit industry. In a move that took the industry by surprise, the American Cancer Society (ACS) made the following decisions in late 2012 with immediate action in 2013:

1. Stop all direct mail acquisition to generate new direct mail donors for the organization.
2. Stop all direct mail conversion to offer non-direct mail Society donors (online donors, event-participants/donors, information seekers, etc.) an opportunity to give a direct mail gift.
3. Remove the American Cancer Society direct mail donors from all exchange universes.

As a reminder, the Society mailed 41 million direct mail pieces to cold prospects and non-mail Society donors in its last year of the strategy. As many can imagine, this decision had the industry talking and everyone became a crystal ball reader for what the future would hold for ACS's program and revenue.

One year later, I had the opportunity to sit down with Lin MacMaster, chief revenue and marketing officer; Hilary Noon, vice president, consumer insight and experience; and the brand-new lead for direct marketing, Robbin Wilson, vice president, fundraiser marketing for the American Cancer Society. I had all of the questions you can imagine. What I didn't expect was the answers that I got in return. Like many of you, I wanted to know, "How were things going?" and "What was happening with the direct mail program?" What I got was a glimpse into the mind of MacMaster and her team as well as the very unique plans they have ahead of them.

While I was expecting some "simple" answers, rest assured they are not; they are complex.

The past year

It's been an interesting and exciting year at the Society. The organization has been going through a full discovery process to understand what the it wants going forward and the type of donors that will help drive significant growth and success against the mission. A part of this process was the completion of a full analysis on the life cycle of the direct mail donor conducted by Noon's team.