MKTG Services

Following is a sampling of lists available to reach donors who support education causes.

Following is a sampling of lists available to reach potential donors to international relief efforts.

Following is a sampling of lists available to reach alternative-medicine advocates as potential donors.

A sampling of lists available to reach animal lovers as potential donors.

When it comes to the question of which list strategies work to build and develop a base of annual giving donors, the obvious answer is to look for more names that are similar to your regular annual donors. Common industry wisdom says to analyze what your best donors are like and then go find more like them.

While that statement certainly is true, the problem with a simplistic approach is that it neglects important discussions of gift size, lifetime value, future giving potential and other key ingredients of a successful annual-giving program.

Over blush iced tea and mushroom risotto, I recently had the pleasure of discussing fundraising with a handful of nonprofit professionals. The occasion was MKTG Services’ Garden Party luncheon at the lovely Nora’s restaurant in D.C., and I had been given carte blanche to talk about anything I wanted. I took the opportunity to share the general impressions that I’ve formulated in the year that I’ve been the editor of FundRaising Success.

You can have the most deserving cause and a highly compelling appeal, but your direct mail is going to be wasted if it’s sent to the wrong lists. That’s why, for any direct mail fundraising campaign, the list is the most important element within the nonprofit organization’s control — that, according to Mal Warwick, chairman of Mal Warwick & Associates Inc., Berkeley, CA.