A public media organization that relies on quarterly member and donor mailings to fund programming and engage its supporter base.
37%
higher response rate
1.7x
higher average gift
The Situation
The organization regularly mailed quarterly statements to active and recently lapsed donors. For its August campaign, additional budget allowed the team to test including deeply lapsed donors (supporters who had not given in two or more years). Unsure whether these donors still had giving potential, the organization turned to GivingDNA to uncover whether this overlooked segment could help meet its fundraising goal.
The Work
Using GivingDNA, the team identified deeply lapsed donors who were most likely to respond to the appeal. These donors received the same quarterly statement as active and recently lapsed supporters. In total, 6,861 donors received the August mailing, including a targeted subset of deeply lapsed donors identified through GivingDNA insights.
We were overwhelmed and delighted by the number of deeply lapsed donors who responded to this mailing and made a gift. We wondered if our list might have hidden potential, and GivingDNA helped us find it. Now, we have a larger segment of supporters to nurture who can help us continue to provide quality programming for our audience.
public media client rep
The Results
The deeply lapsed donors outperformed active and recently lapsed donors across all metrics and were critical to our public media client meeting its $18,000 campaign goal.
- 6,861 mailers were sent, and 51 gifts were received
- 0.74% of deeply lapsed donors responded vs. 0.53% of active and recently lapsed donors
- The response rate of deeply lapsed donors was 37% higher than the active and lapsed segment
- Deeply lapsed donors accounted for 46% of the revenue raised ($17,616) despite being only 15% of those mailed
- Excluding $1,000+ donations, the average gift size among deeply lapsed donors was $277 — 1.7x higher than the other segment
- 5 of the 6 largest gifts ($1,000+) came from deeply lapsed donors, including the largest gift of $10,000
