Fundraising Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER TENDIRECT RESPONSE FUNDRAISING

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Define direct response fundraising.
2. Outline the key stages in donor recruitment planning.
3. Develop donor acquisition objectives.
4. Segment donor markets.
5. Profile and target appropriate prospects.
6. Implement a donor acquisition campaign.
7. Analyze and interpret the results.

Introduction

One of the pioneers of mass marketing, William Hesketh Lever, famously remarked that he knew that half the money he spent on advertising was wasted, but that he did not know which half. Even at the time of this comment one group of marketers had a pretty good idea how their advertising was working. For some time, early direct response marketers had been testing consumer responses to various media and using this information to tailor their media selection and the creative approach employed. Direct response activity has the advantage of being infinitely measurable. While mass marketers can only make educated guesses about the impact of a traditional advertising campaign, the customer response to most forms of direct marketing can be measured to one, two, or even three decimal places. Opportunities for testing abound and direct response marketers rolling out an expensive campaign are now in a position to predict with a high degree of accuracy the response that will ultimately be achieved.

So, what do ...