Your success as a direct mail fundraiser depends on the quality of your list. A mediocre letter mailed to the right list will outperform a terrific letter mailed to the wrong list. How you build that list is up to you. Here are three ways.
Method #1: Build Your List Yourself
Host a special event, offer a free newsletter, ask your members to recruit new members, put a sign-up form on your website. In other words, use every method you can to get the names and addresses of potential donors.
Advantages:
1. Every name you gain is yours to keep and use as many times as you want.
2. You control the quality of the names you acquire.
3. You build a highly targeted list of people who want to receive your fundraising letters and newsletters.
Disadvantages:
1. Time consuming
2. Labor intensive
Method #2: Rent A List From Someone Else
The mailing list you want to build might already exist. Simply call the owner of the list and ask if you can rent it. There are tens of thousands of lists available. If you want to reach Jewish donors, for example, you can mail to a list of Compassionate Jewish Contributors (192,377 names), Hi-Dollar Jewish Women Donors (109,527 names), Jewish Book Buyers (14,289 names) and Committed Jewish Educators (4,877 names).
You can also borrow names from another organization in exchange for them borrowing names from your list. This is called a list exchange.
Advantages:
1. You can reach tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of potential donors immediately.
2. Someone else does all the work of collecting the names and addresses.
Disadvantages:
1. Renting names costs roughly $100 for every 1,000 names.
2. You can only mail to these lists once. To mail them again, you must rent the names again.
3. Only the names who respond to your mailing are yours to keep.
Method #3: Use A List Broker To Create A Custom List
A list broker is a specialist who helps not-for-profit organizations rent lists from list owners (usually businesses or other not-for-profits). Their services include research, selection and recommendation of lists. Look in your local Yellow Pages under “Mailing Lists and Services.” List brokers can create a custom list for you (usually by combining other lists), one based on your needs and campaign goals.
Advantages:
1. List brokers save you time and money because they know the lists that are available. They can recommend the lists that will likely work best for you.
2. You can reach tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of potential donors immediately.
3. Someone else does all the work of collecting the names and addresses.
Disadvantages:
1. Renting names costs roughly $100 for every 1,000 names.
2. You can only mail to these lists once. To mail them again, you must rent the names again.
3. Only the names who respond to your mailing are yours to keep.
You might be interested in these…
Handbook Number 7
18 Places to Find New Donors Using Fundraising Letters.
The professional fundraiser’s guide to creative and cost-effective donor acquisition.
Handbook Number 11
Attract New Donors and Members with a Magnetic Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Package.
Discover over 75 tips, insider secrets and proven tactics by analyzing a superb donor acquisition package from a national charity.
The Fundraisers’ Book of Quotations.
Inspire and motivate your donors with over 2,700 quips, proverbs, aphorisms, witticisms, zingers, epigrams, quotes, one-liners and words of wisdom from actors, writers, activists, philanthropists, artists, scientists, philosophers, poets, humorists, novelists, inventors, journalists, kings, queens, magnates, presidents, dissidents, preachers, paupers and others, famous and infamous, living and dead.
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