Finding new names economically.(DIRECT MAIL)

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.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

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 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.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates