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

They have what’s called a renewal at birth, which is the same as asking for a gift in an acknowledgment. If you’re not doing this, you should be. They also have early renewals, which can come as soon as 10 months before the subscription expires; and attached renewals, which are polybagged or glued to a current subscription’s last issue or, in many cases, multiple issues (for example, a combination of the penultimate issue, the last issue and a free issue after the paid subscription actually has expired). You could test something similar with your donor newsletter.