Gifts for LIFE
For nearly 15 years, the American Heart Association had a direct mail control package that was successful, a simple single-remit buckslip-style letter.
But when the cost of fundraising kept going up and the response rate was down to less than 1%, veering in the .6% to .7% range, the AHA knew it had to change its tactics.
An increased focus on both premiums and modeling of lapsed donors has turned things around for the Dallas-based nonprofit. Today, response rates are typically 5.13% for renewals and 1.89% for prospects, says Sherry Minton, the AHA’s director of direct response marketing.
For the 2004 fiscal year ending in June, the AHA’s direct mail fundraising goal was $36.8 million; at press time the association expected to exceed that, projecting some $39.4 million.
The AHA has 7.6 million direct mail donors, including 2.7 million who have given in the last 24 months. The association also has another database of over 7 million donors who have contributed via memorial gifts, special events and other fundraising opportunities. The direct mail database is maintained by Experian, which also assists the AHA with modeling and merge/purge activities. The other file is maintained in-house on a Siebel system. Minton says the AHA is looking at middleware to integrate the two databases.
In the direct mail database, data tracked includes giving and promotional history, number of times a donor would like to be contacted annually and type of package that elicited the initial response. Household income and age (essential to identify candidates for planned giving promotions) is appended from outside sources, as is telephone number.
The typical AHA donor’s median age is 62 and earns a median income of $35,000, up from approximately $28,000 about 10 years ago. Forty-eight percent of donors are male, and 52% are female.
The average initial donation is $21.84, and the average lifetime value of a donor over a 10-year period for direct mail giving is $40.62, says Minton. Analysis is under way to include planned giving income in the lifetime value of a direct mail donor, including planned gifts for the past two years. In fiscal 2003, at least 23% of the association’s $90 million estate settlement dollars came from direct mail donors the AHA was able to identify.
Minton says the association has developed two tracks in acquisition. One is premium-based while the other is not. When someone gives in response to an offer for a premium like notepads, labels, stickers or cards, that gift is coded to identify the person as a premium-type donor.
