29 Tips for Gaining and Retaining a Donor Base

16. Gift memberships for acquisition. Rich advised picking times for offering gift memberships that make sense for your organization. Some common times for these offers are holidays, Mother's Day/Father's Day, Valentine's Day and graduation.

Direct mail
The most important element to direct-mail success is your list (accounts for 60 percent of your success), i.e., sending it to the right person, Rich said. Also important is the offer (30 percent) and the creative execution (10 percent). Test it, track it and analyze it.