Focus On: Database Analysis: A Closer Look at Models

RFA is borrowed from the catalog industry, which was credited with pioneering the use of RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) prior to the introduction of the computer. Generally speaking, RFA is used to segment donors based on a few key components of past behavior (often direct mail behavior) to predict future activity. Although simple and often subjective, RFA is an effective segmentation model that combines several pieces of information to form relatively homogeneous groups of donors that can be ranked from best to worst.