Direct Mail Fundraising Arithmetic Demystified

By Alan Sharpe (March 2009) E-book $9.99

Master the 14 most common formulas that help you measure—and improve—your DM fundraising results.

You could craft a direct mail package that generates a 20% response rate but an average gift of only $2. Not good. You’d lose money.

Or you could put together a package that generates a response rate of only half of one percent but generates an average gift of $2,000. That’s better. Probably.

You see, the problem with direct mail fundraising arithmetic is this—you need to understand and use more than just one measurement.

You don’t buy a bunch of bananas based on price alone. You wouldn’t choose a lifelong mate based on looks alone (at least I hope you wouldn’t). And you shouldn’t measure your direct mail fundraising success by one ratio or formula, either.

Otherwise, you could be satisfied today with a direct mail program that generates an average gift of $35 but never realize that over half of your donors give you just one gift and never give again. Your average gift doesn’t tell you the whole story any more than your response rate tells you the whole story.

You can avoid these mistakes—and plenty of other mistakes—by learning the most common ways to measure your success, and then using as many of them as you require to arrive at an accurate picture of your accomplishments. The knowledge is in your numbers. All you need to do is uncover it—and use it to your advantage in carrying out your mission.

Direct Mail Fundraising Arithmetic Demystified is the 16th Handbook in the Hands-On Fundraising Series, published by Andrew Spencer Publishing. It teaches you how to master the 14 most common formulas that help you measure—and improve—your DM fundraising results.

Find the Knowledge in Your Numbers

This Handbook shows you how to use the 14 most common ratios and formulas used today by the professionals in direct mail fundraising:

Mailing Cost
Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
Cost Per Piece
Response Count
Response Rate
Gross Income
Net Income
Average Gift
Average Cost Per Gift
Return on Investment
Cost to Raise a Dollar
Net Income Per Thousand Pieces Mailed
Attrition Rate
Renewal Rate

Learn the costly mistakes to avoid . . .

why Cost To Raise A Dollar is an inadequate way to measure your success
what costs you must measure for each mailing—and which costs you should always leave out
the best measurement to use when comparing your direct mail fundraising results with those of special events, telephone fundraising, face-to-face solicitation and other methods so that you always have a valid comparison
the vital difference between gross income and net income that you ignore at your peril
why you must run your numbers at the same interval following your mail drops (and the costly blunder you’ll avoid when you do)
why your Average Gift figure may not represent your Average Gift (and how to make sure it does)
why you should never try to lower your Cost Per Piece at any cost
why your Response Rate is not as important as you may think it is

Download this Handbook now. Start reading it—and profiting from its advice and examples—within minutes.

Product Details

Format: E-book in Adobe PDF format for immediate download
Pages: 17
Publisher: Andrew Spencer Publishing
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-9784052-6-7
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11
SKU: sharpe021