The NonProfit Times - October 1, 2008 - (Page 22)

DIRECT MAIL Continued from page 21 MARK HRYWNA significant cuts at this time,” she said. “We’re looking at investing in acquiring new donors but cognizant of the fact that we may not be able to continue in that fashion, six to 12 months from now.We’re cautiously optimistic about how we are or are not affected by economy,” she said. Direct mail is the largest revenue producer for Food For the Poor, generating as much as 60 to 70 percent of the $1 billion raised last year. With approximately a million active donors, out of a total 3 million donor base, the Coconut Creek, Fla.-based organization mails some 6 million acquisition pieces a year. Donations are a bit less, though not considerable in terms of acquisition. Said Executive Director Angel Aloma, it’s hard to say how much of that is the summer season and how much is the economy. “Our growth depends on our donor base. We don’t want to remain stagnant under even hard conditions.Acquisition tends to be last thing to cut,” he said, expecting to continue at the same level through 2009. Aloma suggested sacrificing instant gratification of getting a higher response rate if nonprofits find less expensive acquisitions that turn out to be better donors and last longer in the file. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) had plans to boost acquisition by some 1.5 million pieces this year, but after seeing weakening results since this past fall, it scaled back to its original plans of about 7.6 million acquisition pieces, on par with what it mailed last year. The IRC was experiencing good acquisition results last summer, which made for a good time to increase acquisition, but by the fall response rates were not where they had been in previous years, said Giselle Holloway, director, direct response, prompting the adjustment in mail quantities by the start of 2008. NPT Finding New Names Economically BY MARK HRYWNA There are alternatives to cutting acquisition mailings if your nonprofit is looking to reduce costs in a declining economy. Emily McManus describes the efforts at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as not mailing less, but mailing smarter. While not cutting back on the number of pieces or campaigns, Baltimore, Md.-based CRS is trying to be cognizant of who it’s mailing, said McManus, manager, new market channels. Through extended analysis of long-term value of lists, CRS looks closely at what lists donors are coming from and how they’re performing, not just immediately, but a year later in the house file and whether they’ve made a second gift, she said. McManus said CRS is paying closer attention to segmentation of its house file and mailing to those who will be most responsive, namely those who give higher gifts and with more frequency. Response rate and average gift are both weighed equally in determining whether a campaign is successful, she said. Acquisition might be a little soft for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, but the New York City-based cancer hospital is still mailing the same, said Kim Walker, director of direct marketing.“We haven’t really changed, maybe we’ve tightened up some of our selects,” she said but budget dollars are still going into acquisition, maybe just more economical packages as opposed to testing packages. Testing on acquisition probably isn’t as aggressive as it was last year for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, according to Brian Cowart, senior director of direct mail acquisition and donor retention.“In these times, you want to go with what you know is working, cutting back a little on new initiatives,” he said. If acquisition results suddenly plummet, Cowart said adjustments would be examined, however, he hasn’t seen much decline in acquisition. “I haven’t seen any indicators that say people are not responding to us from acquisition,” he said. Acquisition has been in line with expectations for St. Jude, with some decline in the spring bouncing back in early summer. St. Jude is aiming for a higher percentage goal growth over Fiscal Year 2008 “so that tells you we’re not yet predicting to fall off that significantly. But we’re also not ignoring the fact that tough times are out there and definitely people are hurting,” Cowart said. St. Jude also is implementing new strategies to upgrade donors and convert them to credit card or monthly donors. “We’re staying the course but we’re also looking for ways to increase the value of donors,” said Cowart, to offset any drop off in response rates. To mitigate the soft economy, Paul Leo, acting director of direct marketing at CARE in Atlanta, suggested getting better prices on list rentals in an effort to drive down the cost of acquisition.“It’s not like going into full retreat, but just changing the way we go about acquiring donors,” he said. The strategy at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been to focus more on core lists, and be more sophisticated in list selection and testing strategies, said Giselle Holloway, director, direct response. “Some lists we paid a higher price for because we knew looking at the long-term —BRIAN COWART value of data, that over time those lists produced donors that brought in more revenue through higher retention rates,” she said. With many of its donors coming from more progressive lists, the IRC anticipates getting fresh Democratic lists as soon as possible after the election, Holloway said. “We don’t want to erode the file by not mailing but make sure that when we mail, we mail in a smart way, that we’re strategic in every way, in every list that we mail to,”she said.“We try to do this in a balanced way, and not let our testing exceed 15 percent of our overall merge.We choose the ones we think will have biggest impact,” Holloway said. NPT “Some lists we paid a higher price for because we knew looking at the long-term value of data” CHARITIES DRY Continued from page 6 Media coverage for Ike and Gustav has not been sustained while the ARC’s 800 number has been “very slow,”Towers said, adding that the organization recently launched a direct mail appeal to about 2.2 million donors who have made prior contributions to the national office during disasters. United Way established a United Way 2008 Hurricane Recovery Fund to aid the long-term rehabilitation of affected communities and began talks with 125 United Way National Corporate Leadership (NCL) companies that work with the organization in times of disaster. “People need to feel a sense of urgency in order to give support, particularly in tough economic times,” said Sally Fabens, public relations director for United Way of America. Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain drove visitors from their campaign Web sites to The Aidmatrix Foundation to donate toward Hurricane Gustav relief.The Aidmatrix Foundation, a nonprofit based in Dallas, allows participating nonprofits and state agencies to use donation portals on their Web sites. The Aidmatrix Network provides the technology to coordinate relief efforts with cash donations, supplies and volunteers across organizations such as FEMA and National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). State portals include Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and other states affected by Gustav, according to Aidmatrix CEO and President Scott McCallum, a former Wisconsin governor. The foundation handles $1.5 billion of aid annually, according to McCallum, and is used by 35,000 nonprofits, corporations and gov- ernment entities in the network, even though McCallum, pointed out that The Aidmatrix Foundation provides the technology, not the aid. The Salvation Army, in addition to online donation solicitations, started looking at prices for doing a direct mail territorial campaign in the southern 15 states and Washington, D.C.“There are people who’s lives have been devastated -- the only people who know that are people that read the newspaper near Houma, La., or live there,” said Maj. Ron Busroe, secretary for community relations and development for the south-east Salvation Army. NPT Update The September 1 issue’s Special Report on Donor Management Software had incomplete information on one of the products.The complete information is below. Tackle Marketing Group TMGProfile Single/Multi User – Pricing starts at $500 per month based on size of organization. Number of users unlimited (877) 249-1977 www.tmgprofile.com NPT ADVERTISER INDEX 16 15 32 2 14 23 8 23 5 6&7 1&3 15 9 21 Achieve AICPA Conference AMA Direct Media Dynamic Data Concepts IFC IU Center on Philanthropy NYU SCPS Northwood Health Systems Sage Software Serverside Card Partner, Inc. Specialized Fundraising Services Streamlink Software US Monitor Services 317-637-3000 888-777-7077 866-262-2797 203-532-3704 800-890-3962 404-255-9685 800-962-6692 888-998-7204 304-234-3500 866-443-3207 866-747-7488 864-579-7755 866-423-1113 800-767-7967 www.achieveguidance.com www.cpa2biz.com/conferences www.marketingpower.com/advantage2 www.directmedia.com/eDMI www.dynamicdataconcepts.com www.resource-alliance.org/ifc www.philanthropy.iupui.edu www.scps.nyu.edu/813 www.northwoodhealth.com www.sage360.com/goodwill www.cardpartner.com www.specializedfundraising.net www.streamlinksoftware.com www.usmonitor.com OCTOBER 1, 2008 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com http://www.achieveguidance.com http://www.marketingpower.com http://www.directmedia.com/eDMI http://www.dynamicdataconcepts.com http://www.resource-alliance.org/ifc http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu http://www.scps.nyu.edu/813 http://www.northwoodhealth.com http://www.sage360.com/goodwill http://www.cardpartner.com http://www.specializedfundraising.net http://www.streamlinksoftware.com http://www.tmgprofile.com http://www.usmonitor.com http://www.nptimes.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The NonProfit Times - October 1, 2008

The NonProfit Times - October 1, 2008 Near Miss & Direct Hit Donor Intent The Focus Of Suit North Dakota AG Investigating The Grant Institute Contents Who...When...Where...How...What? Calendar Kumbaya Tying The Knot Filing Changes Philanthropy Caucus Big Bucks For Capital Campaigns 5 Things NOT To Do In A Capital Campaign Acquisition: Staying The Course ServiceNation Summit Fundraising Guide NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - October 1, 2008

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