Today we meet Catherine Walli, managing director of Commonwealth Lists, a Fairfax, VA-based list brokerage and management company that specializes in direct mail fundraising.
Walli first encountered the list business in 1990 when she was working for a lettershop. Next, she worked for MPG List Co. before joining Commonwealth in 1993.
“I decided I liked the list business while I was working at the lettershop. I’m good with numbers and analysis and that’s why I ended up here,” Walli says.
She does list planning and brokerage for such organizations as Easter Seals, Alzheimer’s Disease Research, National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, National Children’s Cancer Society, Young America’s Fund and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Finding and gaining access to lists with demographics similar to an organization’s existing supporters are simple goals, although not necessarily easy to accomplish, she says.
Walli likes to unwind from work by reading and watching movies. She spends free time practicing yoga and gardening. “I guess I sound like a granola person,” she says.
Walli and her husband share a home with four cats. For vacations they like to travel outside the United States. Next on their agenda is a trip to the Patagonia region of South America.
What’s essential for list brokers to succeed in the fundraising market?
“There’s more to it than just looking at mission statements. It involves knowing an organization, whether for example they’re focusing on older or younger donors, whether their audience is conservative or liberal,” Walli says.
It’s important to consider out-of-category lists, statistical modeling and cooperative databases to find new names, she says, rather than rely exclusively on lists from other nonprofit organizations.
In the final analysis, what matter most are the upfront costs associated with acquiring donors, while considering the long-term value of members and donor retention. “It’s finding the right balance between the cost of acquiring a donor and renewals,” Walli adds.
What’s happening now in the fundraising market?
The normal cycle of cutbacks in list prospecting activity for new donor acquisitions after a postage rate increase is under way, according to Walli. List demand will increase again as organizations experience inevitable declines in dollars raised as a result of reduced donor acquisition activity, she says.
Overall the supply of lists available from nonprofit organizations has been growing, based on Walli’s observations. “It’s getting easy. I don’t think people are holding on as tight to their lists,” she says.
More organizations recognize the potential income stream they can achieve from list rentals and the fact that if they don’t rent names that other organizations with some of the same donors will, says Walli.
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