Lapsed Direct Mail Donors are Better than New Donors

One of your best sources of direct mail donations is people who have stopped giving you direct mail donations. We call these people “lapsed donors” and “expired members,” two uncharitable ways of referring to friends who have not given a donation in 12 months or more.

You might think that anyone designated as “lapsed” or “expired” would not be worth soliciting again, but you’d be wrong, if I may say so.

Lapsed donors and expired members are usually better prospects for a donation than cold lists. A direct mail appeal sent to people who have not given a donation in the last 12 months or 24 months or even 36 months is likely to generate a higher response rate and a higher average gift than a similar appeal mailed to a list of non-donor names that you rent.

Donors who have lapsed are a better source for donations than rented lists for a number of reasons:

1. You know they support causes like yours
2. You know they respond to direct mail appeals
3. You don’t have to pay a list rental fee to mail them

What all of this means is that re-activating a lapsed donor is cheaper than acquiring a new donor from an outside list. Your mailing costs are lower. And your cost to raise a dollar is lower.

That’s why you need a lapsed donor reactivation program, a regular series of letters and telephone calls that you make during the year to win back your friends that have fallen away.

And remember, plenty of the folks that you call “lapsed” have done nothing more sinister than move without giving you their new address (20 percent of North Americans move each year). Don’t let their small oversight be the cause of your parting. Ask the post office to forward your appeals to donors who have moved, and to notify you of their new addresses.

You might be interested in…

Over 130 Sample Fundraising Letters. International, national and local charities share examples of their direct mail fundraising expertise.

And…

Handbook Number 22 How to Recover Your Lapsed Direct Mail Donors. Discover the financial rewards, savings and long-term benefits of wooing and winning your donors all over again using direct mail.

Handbook Number 17 How to Convert Your Once-Only Direct Mail Donors into Repeat Givers. Proven direct mail fundraising techniques for renewing your new members and first-time donors—year after year.