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the greatest percentages of responses to prospect mailings.
Also, contrary to the usual experience with prospect mailings,
some sweeps packages produced substantial profits.
Although the sweeps packages were often profitable for
petitioner, they had their drawbacks. Sweeps packages generally
worked on individuals who were primarily interested in playing
the contest, as opposed to being interested in supporting
petitioner. In his memorandum dated July 9, 1986, to
petitioner’s executive director, Watson, in generally commenting
on petitioner’s direct mail campaign, made the following
observations about the sweeps package donors who contributed to
petitioner:
UCC basically has two donor files--one being sweepstakes
donors and the other being regular or straight donors.
The Sweepstakes file makes up 80% of all donor names and the
straight file has the balance of 20%.
Although sweeps names have a higher conversion rate into
second and third donations, the life span of these donors is
less than straight donors.
We are continuing to try to expand the straight file which
is a true donor base and is the one that can be tapped for
future major gifts. * * *
* * * * * * *
In summary, it appears that the UCC direct mail
fundraising program is healthy and shows signs of continued
improvement. As the straight donor file expands, it should
lend stability to the monthly income for UCC. The
sweepstakes housefile mailings should continue to provide
the buffer needed to provide the minimum revenues to help
UCC make its monthly budgetary commitments.
In addition to the problem that Watson noted, some of the
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