Have you ever thought about the fact that some lapsed donors aren’t worth spending valuable resources on?
Is re-engaging lapsed donors an important activity? Of course it is. However, not all lapsed donors can or should be termed salvageable.
Stop to think about it for a minute. Imagine the savings you’d realize if you mail to the right lapsed donors instead of to all of them.
Imagine the improved return on investment that you’d receive.
You know these donors haven’t given to you in a while, but that’s about all you know. Imagine how much more you’d learn if you could gather additional information about your lapsed donors.
Donor data, the kind Rescigno’s can find for you, can indicate whether your lapsed donors are still giving to other organizations or whether they’re no longer giving to anyone at all.
Regardless of the last gift size, some donors are unlikely to give to you any more because, simply put, they’re not giving to anyone anymore.
Screening out unsuitable lapsed donors and suppressing them from future appeals in order to communicate more often with the appropriate lapsed donors is a very smart idea.
Digging more deeply into donor data might help to reinforce what you already know. For example, many lapsed donors might only give during the holidays. That should guide future communications because you know that the best chance you have of getting them to give again is during particular holidays during any given year. If they are still giving to others, you can try re-engaging them with mailings that they have responded well to in the past and only at times of the year when they have given to you and others.
It boils down to this: you will get more from the investments you make by directing communications to the donors who are willing and able to provide you with the revenues you are looking for.
