D.C. Nonprofit Conference Roundup: Getting the Most Out of Lists to Improve Direct Mail Acquisition Results

Both Licursi and Glenn Gibson, director, strategic marketing at National Wildlife Federation, talked about improving acquisition response rates by creating response models that find high-performing zip codes and selecting those areas only from marginal lists.

This kind of modeling, as well as other prospect models Gibson discussed, can significantly improve acquisition performance. A data model can find prospects most likely to respond because they “look” like people who already donate (based on who else they give to, how much they give, where they live, or countless other demographic or philanthropic factors). This also is a great way to find people who have interacted with an organization in another way — signed a petition, volunteered at an event — to actually make a gift.