Focus On: Database Analysis: A Closer Look at Models

RFA has endured in large part because it works well at discerning the best and worst candidates for a mailing. As one client stated, “I spend 20 percent of my time selecting 80 percent of my audience and 80 percent of my time selecting the other 20 percent.” In reality, most fundraising files contain a substantial number of names that fall somewhere between best and worst. As marketers find themselves venturing deeper into their files to achieve gross revenue objectives, they are realizing that RFA becomes a progressively less effective tool for differentiating opportunities. More information about our donors leads to more informed marketing decisions, and nowhere is this more evident than within the not-so-obvious middle ground.