Here’s why donors won’t let you forget about freebies.

By Paul Barbagallo

Does your budgetary process allow time to build a large donor file without offering premiums?

“The savviest organizations find a place for both,” Kline says. “They have a premium-based file, a non-premium-based file, and a crossover group for which they mail both premiums and straight appeals to.”

Kline admits that donors acquired without incentives tend to have greater long-term value, but in every premium-built file there are large pockets of donors who have demonstrated a predisposition to give beyond just a small-dollar impulse gift in exchange for a trinket.