Focus On: Lists: Prospecting Lists that Work

FS: How important are list exchanges to your direct mail prospecting efforts? Is it difficult to manage and negotiate exchanges?
MB: Exchanges remain an important part of our acquisition programs. Our list management and brokerage firm [Mokrynski & Associates] has done a wonderful job of maintaining exchange balances and negotiating arrangements. Some balance disputes have occurred in the past but are generally limited to only a few lists. Overlap between lists is an issue but nowhere near that of housefile duplication. Most nonprofits seem to have a much lower turnover rate than the consumer lists that we use, causing higher duplication rates with continued usage. Our mailing plans allow for periodic resting of lists to allow new names to accumulate.