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Weekly UpdatesIn the search for upscale donors, publications like Forbes or Money are obvious choices for fundraisers targeting subscription lists. Or in the case of environmental groups, magazines with a similar focus likely will find a sympathetic readership able to part with a few dollars.
Looking a little deeper, other tides might work for your organization. Popular Mechanics might not be the first magazine you'd think would work for a health organization, but its reader profile features an "affluent male hobbyist who has a soft side to them," said Susan Rice Rappaport, president of data acquisition at American List Counsel (ALC) in Princeton, N.J. "A reader is what you're finding. Hobbyists tend to be a little more educated," she said.
Financial subscription lists have worked well for Special Olympics (SO), according to Shannon McCracken, SO's director of direct marketing. "Like all the buyer/subscriber lists, we get a higher average gift but lower response rate," she said. SO, however, only rents lists and does not exchange names with commercial mailers.
Large humanitarian organizations and environmental groups can make some of the more liberal magazines work, such as The Week, while Christian Science Monitor might work for a certain type of mailer, Rice Rappaport said.
Response rates for a good subscription file might be haft that of a good donor file, according to Rice Rappaport. Though response rates might be less, magazine lists tend to have a higher average gift.
"When putting a mail plan together, 80 percent will be donor files, because on exchange, you're trying to maximize the number of new donors, while maximizing dollars" she said.
"Response rates and average gift both need to be strong, but as you begin to look at commercial files, there are certain ones that you can make work because the high average gift helps offset the response rate. Sometimes data indicates commercial files have good long-term value, but all those commercial files are on rental so it's another factor to figure into the math of how you mail those lists,' Rice Rappaport said.
Charities such as the American Heart Association and Paralyzed Veterans of America are more conservative, she said, and might have their own types of publications that work for them. Looking at the psychographics, whether donors are conservative or liberal, older or younger, using lists is about matching up the donor profile with the psychographic profile of a publication, Rice Rappaport said.
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For instance, The Nature Conservancy finds that publications oriented around birds and gardens or environmental and green-focused magazines work well, but the Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit also uses high-end editorial publications.
Heather Maylander, managing director at Lake Group Media in Rye, N.Y., banks on some of the usual tides for progressive causes. Magazines such as The Economist and The Nation, along with Newsweek and Atlantic Monthly, seem to be among her most consistent performers. Publications that are new to the market are working well, such as Ode magazine, said Maylander. "You get a smattering of new ones that hit the market in the progressive area," she said.
For Time Consumer Marketing Inc., the best lists for nonprofits include Money, Food & Wine, Sunset, All You, Real Simple, Health, and Southern Living. "It looks like more and more fundraisers are turning toward modeling to find donors who are responsive to a direct mail effort," said Christine Slusarek, executive director, list management, at Time Consumer Marketing. Fundraisers, she added, are also experimenting with email addresses to see if outside lists can be used as a prospecting tool.
The best tides tend to be verticals, Rice Rappaport said, with some nonprofits depending on health mailers such as Berkeley Wellness and Johns Hopkins newsletters or Boardroom Reports. "Where you have intellectual readers, they tend to be ones who also are philanthropic" she said. For socially-oriented donors, she added, nonprofits can find socially oriented publications, like Body + Soul magazine.
The universe of names could begin shrinking, as nonprofits get conservative, holding on to their core lists in the economic downturn and testing less. The universe of publications disappearing might also contribute.
Almost 600 magazines folded in each of the past two years and 40 ceased publication altogether within the first six weeks of 2009, according to mediafinder.com, an online database of U.S. and Canadian publications.
Steve Kehrli, development director for PETA in Oakland, Calif., said the magazine industry is taking a hard hit because so many people are going online for content, and that trending is probably not helped by the economy.
"If a magazine folds, usually whoever comes in and buys the assets of that magazine will more likely buy the subscription lists that go with it," Kehrli said. "The customer list is their most valuable asset in some ways. That's the one thing left of value," he said.
"The typical donor is 65 to 70, so I don't know how many are getting their content online," said Rice Rappaport. "It's shifting but the donor is probably still a reader," she said.
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