A Multichannel Marketing Quiz for Fundraisers

* True or False: Direct mail is the most effective donor-acquisition channel.

Answer: FALSE. Every nonprofit organization is different, but most agree that testing and measuring results in various media channels — and doing so on a periodic basis — is the only way to answer this question accurately. If an organization hasn’t tested online banner advertisements, or any other channel for that matter, then it really can’t know whether marketing dollars could be stretched further by incorporating other media. In retail markets, for example, a multichannel customer has greater lifetime value — it makes sense to test and build donor value in much the same way.