Are You Sending Too Much Mail?

1. You'll get fewer gifts per donor. Fewer opportunities to give equals fewer gifts. If you were getting three gifts per year from a donor by sending 12 mailings, chances are you'll get two gifts by sending six. Your ratio is better, but you took a 33 percent hit in total revenue. Ouch.

2. Worse yet, donor retention drops with decreased contact. A number of one-gift and two-gift donors will simply drift to zero gifts. That means not only lost revenue now, but years into the future. The cumulative loss of donors and revenue can put your organization in a devastating downward spiral.