The NonProfit Times - January 15, 2008 - (Page 6)

LISTS MARK HRYWNA AND MARLA E. NOBLES Election Cycles Making your house file attractive in a political season s federal funding and giving by corporations continues to comprise less and less of a nonprofit’s revenue stream, the onus is falling on the individual donor to come up with the money. Now throw in the millions upon millions of pieces of political mail touting this year’s very heated presidential election, donor burnout becomes a very real possibility. “There’s more energy, passion, anger,frustration,etc.,from both sides, which will ratchet things up in a way that we’ve never seen perhaps in American politics before,” said Richard Viguerie, longtime direct mail strategist and chairman of Manassas, Va.based American Target Advertising. Viguerie estimated that more than 10 million people will make a contribution during the 2008 presidential election, an estimated 2 million more than during the ’04 presidential election. With so much mail in the postal stream,nonprofits might want to think about getting in on all the fundraising action during the political season. Political in nature or not, nonprofits can examine revenue opportunities when it comes to their most valuable assets: their lists. At face value,a certain list might not look politically inclined, but donors to veterans groups, for example, are more likely conservative and patriotic, said Rita O’Neill, president of O’Neill Marketing Company in Fairfax,Va.Any political cycle can use a veteran support list or a senior citizen health list. Many groups will overlay their lists, and if a list is large enough, O’Neill said, you can identify political ideology.“You can take a broad-based charitable list, and within that donor list, also have probably a senior citizen who’s conditioned in direct mail responses, and also if you can do a maximum overlay by minimizing known Democrats for a Republican offer, and vice versa,” she said. Overlays by themselves are not ideal, but are used as a way to omit a quadrant, O’Neill said,“to lift a better performance out of what your gut already says will be a good list.” Groups that are not political and want to put their list on the market, can encourage their list company to be creative with their types of selects, O’Neill said. Healthcare groups, such as Alzheimer’s or cancer, that do a lot of advocacy, awareness and education, have the types of donors that will have solid election cycles, if they’re prone to interactivity with the mail, she said. Rich Leary, senior vice president of list management, nonprofit division, at RMI Direct in Danbury, Conn., manages files -- including the Cystic Fibro6 sis Foundation and American Lung Association -- that tend to be older, conservative females from middle America. Some Democrats will use the lists and they still work pretty well, he said. It conceivably could hurt donations if a donor turns around and asks why they might be getting mail for a donation that doesn’t jive with their political beliefs, he said. A list manager ultimately must look at their donor base and ask themselves if donors will approve of it. Leary also warns of another pitfall Rita O’Neill which we’re mailing, that we’ve actually pulled back to the core and minimized the risk,” said Allison Porter, executive vice president and cofounder of Avalon Consulting, in Washington, D.C.“This is definitely not the time to do something crazy.” Added Porter regarding a nonprofit mailing to its own donors,“Stick with formats that are tried and true. Stick with what has historically worked well -- not only for your organization but for the industry.There aren’t a lot of new, big, bright ideas, and so many Richard Viguerie “When it comes to political campaigns always ask for pre-payment.” — Rich Leary when it comes to political campaigns. “Unfortunately, presidential election campaigns have a bad track record of paying,” he said.“They’re going for the whole ball of wax,and if they don’t win they’re off to other things,” so outstanding debts sometimes get low priority. Leary said that he learned a hard lesson when a high-profile presidential candidate’s campaign once owed a brokerage agency a substantial amount after losing an election.“That stuck with me ever since then, at least 20 years ago.” He warns nonprofits to “tread lightly” when it comes to political campaigns and always ask for prepayment. In terms of list strategy, nonprofits must remember to manage risk.“What we’ve been doing with our clients is just really trying to contain the risk, so that if something happens, and January becomes this big black hole into JANUARY 15, 2008 things are recycled.And it’s not a bad time to be sticking with things that definitely work.” Hal Malchow, an influential figure in persuasion-mail marketing and president of MSHC Partners in Washington, D.C., noted that the most risk lies in prospecting for new donors.“It might make sense for some groups if they’re finding they’re struggling, to just scale back on prospecting and work their donor lists a little harder, go to their house files,” he said. “Where the competition is likely to hurt them most is in the competition for new donors.” Echoed Ann Herzog: “Don’t go for the peripheral markets, go for the core market.” But, said Herzog, principal and co-founder of Avalon,“it’s not totally cutting (testing) out, but cutting back on it.” Less testing is one tactic an organiwww.nptimes.com zation can take, particularly when the mail space is extremely cluttered and donors’ attentions are being diverted. “The biggest issue for nonprofits is how to broaden their donor or member base,” said Janet Granger-Happ, marketing manager, nonprofit segment for Global Mailstream Solutions at Pitney Bowes, Inc., based in the Stamford, Conn., office.“Because they go back to the well so many times that there’s donor/member burn out.” She said the focus should turn to broadening this base using tactics such as list profiling, which takes a group’s existing list and profiles it to locate more of those same types of donors – their best prospects. “And then they mine those to find out who the next major donor is going to be.” RMI’s Leary is unconvinced that list burnout occurs. “I don’t think a list will get burned out unless a donor gets umpteen in one day mailed to them. Most clients don’t protect a limited number of hits to one person in one time. As far as burning out, I’ve never really experienced that.” According to Scott Huch, president of The Delta Group, a direct-mail advertising agency in Annandale,Va., there’s only one way to come by productive lists:test.“But unless a nonprofit knows what it’s doing, all the new enhancements can actually make it harder to find good lists, not easier,” he said. “A list with 10 different enhancements based on median income, census tract and ‘lifestyle’ information will never work as well as a tried-andtrue list of proven, direct response donors” to like-minded organizations and causes, added Huch. While they differ on testing, experts agree on one key point: message is paramount. In some cases, nonprofits can make the mistake of trying to find the political angle, or re-shape their message to fit into what’s diverting the public’s attention. “It’s in the nonprofit’s best interest to stay neutral,” said Ellenor Kirkconnell, manager of nonprofit solutions in the Washington, D.C., office of Pitney Bowes. “Because who knows what will happen a year down the road.” Said Malchow, “They need to stick with what they’re known for, and what works. For most groups, if they stick with their own message, if they stick with their own donors, if they stick with their own prospect list, things will be fine. Because there’s a lot more money given charitably than there is politically.” The presidential race “will have some impact (on nonprofit direct mail), but I don’t think it will be major,” said American Target’s Viguerie. “There’s no shortage of money.There’s no shortage of creativity.” NPT THE NONPROFIT TIMES http://www.nptimes.com

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The NonProfit Times - January 15, 2008

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