wednesday, january 6th, 2010
BOYS TOWN OFFICIAL SHARES FUND-RAISING EXPERIENCES
By Bill Roberts
Members of the Mid-America Direct Marketing Association received a special treat at the Jan. 6 luncheon meeting, and it wasn’t dessert.
They got a sweet look at direct response testing by one of our area’s best-known fundraising operations. Mike Vcelik, director of annual giving at Boys Town, explained how the internationally famous charity recently used two firms to conduct modeling tests on acquisition mailings.
The tests did what direct-marketing tests are supposed to do, he said: Show which methods work best – even if they seem counterintuitive.
One model variable was Internet use. Not surprisingly, the tests showed that the older people who donate to Boys Town generally were light Internet users.
But tests of another variable, length of residence, raised eyebrows.
“The longer somebody lives somewhere the less likely they are to respond to the mailing. That surprised us,” he said.
Another variable showed that people who shop with catalogs are likely to be Boys Town donors. Still another showed that households with credit cards close to being maxed out are more likely to be donors.
Vcelik said Boys Town eventually chose to work with one modeling firm over the other because of interpersonal relationships – he and his co-workers got along better with one company. Throughout the room, heads nodded.
KEEP LAPSED DONORS
Vcelik said Boys Town has learned to hang on to lapsed donors and those who give small amounts. In one case, he said, a “five-dollar donor” left a will bequeathing Boys Town more than a million dollars.
“They think of you as one of their charities,” Vcelik said, “but they don’t want to outlive their money. So you stay in front of them and they may include you in their will.”
That’s also an argument for taking a long view of your donor database, he said: “It’s not a standing army. It’s a moving parade.”
He gave this example: Your charity attracts donors in their 30s and 40s, when they have a lot of bills and can donate only a modest amount. As they reach their 50s and 60s, they give you more, but in their 70s they pull back, fearing they may need money for health care. In the end they may reward your patience by putting your charity in their wills.
Vcelik has been with Boys Town for 20 years and in his current position since 2006. He said the organization’s number of donors sank from a high of a million to about half that five years ago. Now it has been built back up to around 900,000.
Why the turnaround? He credited Boys Town’s current administration with giving the direct marketing department “the freedom to test.”
Vcelik said Boys Town typically mails to a donor 14 or 15 times a year. Even though a donor may receive five or more mailings without responding, he said Boys Town will keep on mailing, because tests show that enough donors respond by the sixth or seventh time to make the multiple mailings worthwhile.
Responding to a question, Vcelik said he had tested direct response TV to acquire names. He said using TV had proved to be more expensive ($175 per name) than using mail ($20 to $22 per name), and that had scared off Boys Town’s decision-makers.
“It is just such a high risk because it’s so expensive that we decided not to pursue it,” he said.