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Donor recency - potentially your fundraising powerhouse
by Anthony Lovell
March 18, 1998; Canadian FundRaiser
If you have records of response to your mailings, and of course you do, you can turn your knowledge of donor recency into a fundraising powerhouse. The concept is simple enough: the more recently a donor has given to your organization in the past, the more likely they are to give the next time you ask them.
There's a test you can perform to check if this statement holds true for your organization: analyse the results of the last mailing you sent out to everyone in your database by the year of their last gift. The results should be clear: people who gave recently were much more likely to donate when asked; and people who hadn't donated for a long time were much less likely to donate.
So now that you've determined that there is a recency pattern within your database, what can you do with this information? I'd recommend that you take advantage of donor recency in the following way:
1. Examine the recency patterns by segments
Start by determining the natural segments for the donors within your database. For example, you may find that your donors break naturally into the following segments: donors who've given during the past 12 months are "active" donors; those who last gave 13-24 months ago are "inactive" donors; those who gave from 25-48 months ago are "lapsed" donors; and those who gave 49 or more months ago are "dormant" donors; and so on.
2. Thoroughly analyse each segment's performance
Study the response patterns for each segment that you've defined to determine where your program is profitable, and where it's unprofitable. (A separate challenge entirely will be to determine precisely what "profitable" means for your organization; not everyone defines it the same way.) With this information you should be able to determine how many times you can afford to mail the average donor before it becomes cost-prohibitive. You may also want to look at each segment by the amount of the last gift.
3. Brainstorm about how to improve each segment's performance
Meet with your colleagues, peers, consultants or agencies to determine how best you can improve each segment's performance.
4. Develop strategies for each segment
Take the ideas you developed during your brainstorming session, and look at them in the cold, hard light of day. How will you implement them? What can you do to affect donor behaviour? You might, for example:

Thank your active donors for their past year's support, and tell them as specifically as possible how it's helped your organization.

Remind inactive donors that when they actively supported your organization, they were helping to accomplish specific goals; then build a compelling reason for them to give again this year.

Express your regrets to your lapsed donors that you haven't heard from them for a while, and ask them to renew their support. Ask them why they've stopped supporting your organization, and what you could do to renew the relationship with them. Apart from anything else, you may get some useful (and rather frank) information on the issues that concern these individuals.

Consider eliminating dormant donors from some or all of your future mailings, based on the amount of their last gift, or their life-time value. Some organizations mail to this group with the same package they use for their acquisition program, under the theory that they must be "re-sold" on the organization.

5. Once implemented, monitor the results by segment
The beauty of direct marketing is that it's measurable - take full advantage of this aspect of the discipline, and measure the effectiveness of each approach.
6. And finally, conduct a "post-mortem"
"Post mortems" are a great way to help you determine what worked and what didn't. Use the information you gain from this assessment as the launching point for your next campaign.
Tony Lovell is President of Lovell & Company Inc, a company helping its clients achieve exceptional results through effective Direct Marketing programs. His company assesses programs, develops strategy, and provides a full range of creative and production services. He can be reached by calling (416) 763-7173.