suppressing recent donors from online campaign

Matt Larson

Since we’re new to online fundraising, I’m looking for some advice about suppressing recent donors from our upcoming spring campaign.

Typically, when we solicit our constituents via mail we do not solicit anyone who has given a gift (and for us, membership renewals are gifts) in the last 60 (sometimes 90) days.

It would be good to know what others consider best practices for online solicitations of recent donors.

Thanks!

Matt

Rachael Ahrens

Depending on the type of appeal you are sending, asking very recent donors to  give again can cause confusion and frustration. Donors may call you  wondering if you didn't receive their earlier gift or they may think you  are being insensitive by asking again too soon. Suppressing recent donors is a good idea. Thirty, 60 or 90 days is appropriate. To do this, you'll run a query in your offline database of recent donors and run a query of C360 for recent donors. You'll want to suppress them both in your Do Not Mail audience when setting up your email send. (Or note that you have created these suppression groups and wish for your Go! consultant to configure them as part of your email launch.)

Your online query can be run up to the moment you decide to send the appeal, but your offline query may not contain very recent gifts (or those that are still in the mail). Just to be safe, many clients choose to include a P.S. that says something like "If you have already made your gift, thanks so much." Now because GMC uses the RE Connector, you can actually run your RE  query very near the moment of your launch so that your offline list is  nearly 100% accurate as well...a very nice thing indeed.

Another thing to consider is suppressing monthly donors. Unless your appeal is for an urgent request above and beyond your monthly donor request (say, for a natural disaster or other emergency relevant to your organation), it is also customary to filter out monthly donors too.

Being sensitive to your donor's date of last gift shows your donors they are appreciated. It also conveys that your organization tracks each donor individually, even though you may actually be dealing with thousands of donors at one time.Your donors will likely respond amicably to this. Everyone wants to feel that when they make a donation they are more than just a dollar amount or a constituent record.

All that being said, there are instances where asking for an additional gift shortly after a donor gives is appropriate. Say a person just attended a ticketed event...asking them to solidify their commitment after the event is a great idea, while the event experience is still fresh in their mind. Also, if you do a membership drive, you might send a "member welcome series" that asks your members to consider giving a gift in addition to their membership dues. When done tactfully and by recognizing that the person did just make a recent gift, these types of appeals can actually go over very well.

If anyone has personal experience with this, please post back. Great topic!