Smart Acquisition Targeting for Non-Profit Organizations

Q:  I’m a non-profit company that assists children with developmental disabilities.  I’m exploring the use of lists for our next appeal for donations.  Do you have any advice for me when looking for lists that would best target my audience?

A:  Absolutely!  First, take a close look at your existing donors.  You may even want to do some analysis to determine what makes them unique in terms of income, education level, geography, etc.  If you don’t have enough time to profile your donors, use your gut feelings on what you know about them as you are considering data providers.

We’ve found that most of the large compilers have selects that identify those with a high propensity to donate to causes — you can even identify which causes that they are most likely to donate to.  Utilize this select along with the other demographic selects to best target your prospective donors and you’ll be armed with data that will be more responsive — because they look like your existing donors, and you know that they have a high propensity to donate to causes.  It’s a beautiful thing!

One last word on the customer profiles.  If you have the time to do it, we highly recommend it.  It is a low cost way to figure out what your customers REALLY look like.  You’ll be marketing much more intelligently if you use an analytical approach to your acquisition campaigns.  Good luck — we hope you get lots of new donors!