Five Thoughts About Integrated Fundraising

For example, suppose you’re testing whether a direct-mail appeal will receive better results if accompanied by a series of ads in general-circulation newspapers. There really isn’t a way to have only some of the citizens of Buffalo, N.Y., see the ad so that you can measure the effect of the ad on response rates to the direct mail. In such cases, you often can use a “matched market” approach. If, in the past, Omaha, Neb., donors and Buffalo donors responded very similarly to the direct-mail appeals, then you might take out the ads in one city but not the other, and see if there are sudden dissimilarities in the response to the direct mail.