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Feb 28, 2014

Optimizing the Demise (Part 2)

stopYesterday we posted the first of our five part series on Optimizing the Demise, if you missed it, click here to read.  Today we offer you the second practical idea for how to optimize the decline in your direct mail fundraising program:

  • Stop direct mail testing – at least in acquisition. Look, even if you test something that doubles response (which is rarer than a supermodel on a Metro bus), lifting response rates from a 0.44% to a 0.88% isn’t going to save your organization. Better to redirect the budget and ideas set aside for testing to try new things that might have a longer payoff.

This idea won’t change the course of the direct mail trend. But it will buy you some time while we are all figuring out the next big thing.

First-half of 2025 Trends in Fundraising

I have four graphs that summarize what we are seeing across the fundraising arena. These come from our newest analytical report, The Single Largest Gift - Cohort Analysis (SLG-CA). I know, its name is a mouthful, but its insights are plentiful. Basically, the SLG-CA...

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Part IV: The Complexities of Implementation

This is our fourth blog on some things the nonprofit community should be thinking about regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI). Adopting new technologies is rarely straight forward. For example, remember your last CRM upgrade? How did that go? If you are like most...

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