Focus On: Lists: Prospecting Lists that Work

Over the last five or six years, we’ve had to be more aggressive than in the past in terms of prospecting to maintain and grow our donor base. But we are still probably 85 percent core and related lists, and 15 percent test lists.

In terms of the dollars spent and number of packages we mail, we have increased our efforts for acquisition over the years. What this reflects is probably not a significant change in list strategy; we simply allocated more resources to acquisition — going deeper into donor lists and expanding test lists. Plus, the cost of acquisition in terms of paper and postage has gone up.