Three Quick Tips for Small and Regional Fundraisers to Improve List Performance

With bare-bones donor acquisition budgets, regional nonprofit mailers must be smart in their list planning. In direct mail in general, lists can account for 50 percent to 60 percent of the success of a mailing. Here are three tips for improving results:

1. AVOID MINIMUM-ORDER CHARGES
This is a difficult guideline to follow for many smaller fundraising mailers because they cannot make minimum-order quantities. To avoid the hefty minimums on rented direct-response lists, they turn to generally weaker, compiled donor files.