Drilling for Truth

3. Donors appreciate a good deal. Two test panels of 10,000 donors each were involved in a matching-gift offer test. The direct mail packages sent to both panels were identical except that the test group's did not contain the matching-gift offer. The results were no surprise. The panel that received the matching-gift offer responded at a rate 56 percent higher than the group without the matching-gift offer. Net revenue was 53 percent higher from the matching-gift panel.