Conference Roundup: Wooing Lapsed Donors

“There is a difference in who you talk to as a lapsed donor and who you treat as a lapsed [donor] through your segmentation,” Hunter said, suggesting organizations use their data to pinpoint where the biggest drop in response occurs and measure it in six-month increments.

In defining the objective for an appeal, he said, the major question is whether the goal is net income or reaching deeper into your lapsed files. He also advised nonprofits to use RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) aggressively.