FOCUS ON AUDITS Don't Be Afraid of the A-wordUnlike the tax v

A good file audit needs to focus in on four key areas: new-donor acquisition, first-year renewal, multi-year renewal and lapsed recapture.

New donor acquisition

Nonprofits need more new donors every year in order to grow their mail programs, and they need to replace those donors who have lapsed. A file audit will quantify the number of new donors entering the program each year and, as appropriate, the different types of donors that are coming in (for example, premium-acquired versus mission-acquired donors).