30 Ideas for Fundraising Success, Part 3

• Try smaller ask amounts and multipliers: for lapsed audiences, test 75 percent of last gift, 125 percent of last gift and 150 percent of last gift.
• Try gender-based gift arrays — lower gift arrays for women have spiked response rates for some organizations, he said.
• In acquisition, try lowering entry ask arrays to see impact on response rate. Getting more donors in the door and then upgrading them may be a better solution than losing out on certain donor segments.

Address your communications to just one person
"Have one person in mind when you're writing you letter/e-mail so you have that personal I/you connection," Thompson said.