Don’t give up on your lapsed donors. With the right strategy, you can bring them back into the fold — and it’s easier than trying to win new ones.

By Cary Castle

At a recent Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association lunch in New York City, Lynn Edmonds, president of Holliston, Mass.-based L.W. Robbins Associates, presented a case study of a Native American school that did just that with positive results. The school got closer to its top-of-file donors, by increasing its communications with them and including them as part of a special “club” without having to commit to being monthly givers. Now it is expanding the program to be more proactive, and the results show an additional revenue increase.