Learn more about analytics and research best practices, as well as real world examples and solutions for nonprofits.

Optimizing the Demise (Part 2)

Yesterday 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.

It’s not just the information that’s important; it’s how you present it

by Bill Jacobs | Sep 12, 2021

There is so much information out there. And that’s a problem. It’s a problem because many of us spend more time looking for relevant information than we do acting on information. And that is a losing proposition. I’m a firm believer that the best information is the...

“GO BIG” ISN’T ALWAYS BEST

by Bill Jacobs | Sep 12, 2021

In 2013, we were chatting about how the technological movement known as “big data” was at its tipping point and it seemed that nothing was going to stop it. And… that was right. Nothing has stopped it. Since then, even large companies like ® are finding ways of using...

Twenty Years of Knowing More

by Bill Jacobs | Aug 23, 2021

In September, Analytical Ones begins its 20th year providing fundraising analytics and donor behavior research for nonprofit organizations and their advertising agency partners. Over the past two decades, we have been fortunate to serve hundreds of clients. While many...