American Cancer Society Rethinks Legacy Direct Mail Acquisition, Conversion Efforts

• As the American Cancer Society continues to look at its opportunities through the lens of "high cost - low yield," it's no surprise that direct mail has continued to put pressure on the organization's view of acceptable CPDR metrics. Over the years, the cost of doing direct mail has continued to rise, and while the Society has achieved good performance, the overall ratio of revenue to cost fell into a range that was not comfortable. This was especially true as it looks to drive an even greater percentage of revenues going to directly support mission vs. fundraising and management. Currently the Society allocates 72 percent of its revenues to program, and its leaders have committed to improving that percentage over the next several years. The organization has taken a progressive position with respect to good stewardship. Needless to say, therefore, any program with a high CPDR is under review.
• The direct mail donors are older than the donors who are targeted by its other fundraising programs — 67 percent of the direct mail donors are over 65 years of age — yet its primary community engagement programs (Relay For Life^TM and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer^TM) have 80 percent and 84 percent respectively under the age of 65. As a further point of comparison between direct mail donors and the primary target audience within the donor population of the Society, direct mail donors make up only 12 percent, with the vast majority of the balance being the community engagement donors.
• Direct mail donors have a tendency to stay within their single channel at the Society and not migrate to other programs it has prioritized. With the Society focused on integration and bridging its messaging across multiple channels, this is another area where direct mail donors stood out as being unique compared to the other constituents engaged.
• While the Society is committed to engaging the 65+ market, its leaders do not believe that direct mail is the only way these consumers will engage and support the mission. It is committed to monitoring and continuously testing this audience along the way because it is an important demographic group, but will focus on engaging them through other channels.
• While every organization worries about the frequency of donor touches, the Society did some work in this area and asked for constituent input about that very topic. Similar to what has been confirmed in other industry studies, the organization found that the frequency of direct mail is not necessarily the problem — the problem is the relevancy of the message and the lack of integration across all the branded communication channels.

This was stated already but is certainly a very important part of the discussion and decision: While direct mail may have been a long-time strategy for the Society, it is truly supplemental to the vast majority of the organization's revenue portfolio. Direct mail revenue overall is but a very small portion of the organization's total revenue — only 6 percent. The risk is there but also limited. It is also worth stating that the Society is not just "cutting" programs that don't meet a specific fundraising ratio — it is focused on continuing to innovate and build a broader, richer fundraising portfolio. Executives intend to focus on an optimized fundraising portfolio that drives even greater efficiency.