If any organization has the gumption to go after major donors via direct mail, the Web and telemarketing, it would be NARAL Pro-Choice America. It did, and it’s working.

By Abny Santicola

According to Kross, when the new, comprehensive major-donor program began, NARAL Pro-Choice America had been raising $400,000 a year from its major-donor direct-response program. In 2005 that number was up to $700,000, and the organization projects major-donor revenue totalling about $900,000 in 2006. Kushner says that she had been skeptical about putting major donors in the hands of a telemarketing firm, but the major-donor telemarketing campaign consistently nets at least a 90 percent mail fulfillment rate, which Kross says is unheard of in a lower-dollar program.