Lowering New Donor Acquisition Cost
The Challenge
Meals on Wheels Foundation of Northern Illinois evaluated their acquisition program to focus on lowering the cost to acquire new donors, while maintaining their average gift and long-term value from these new donors.
The Strategy
Our strategy was to first evaluate the past results to identify the rental lists that had performed well so we could determine if those lists could be expanded as well as to identify other similar lists to test.
Cooperative database lists had performed well for Meals on Wheels in the past, but these models were modeled by a nationwide select, and were not based on the Northern Illinois donors that support this specific Meals on Wheels agency. These lists perform the best when donor profile is updated and accurate and can find prospects that “look” like current donors. Once we re-built the models and focused on their local donor’s demographic and transactional behavior, we saw an immediate increase with some lists seeing a 2-3% response rate and over an $50 average gift.
The creative was similar to previous packages, to serve as a control, but did receive a refresh to feature adapted copy from a strong-performing appeal in Fall 2019.
The Result
The Spring 2020 Acquisition was a success! The cost to acquire a donor dropped by 68% to only $32, while the average gift increased 20% as well.
Utilizing these strategies to test and evaluate lists throughout the year, we were able meet and exceed the FY20 acquisition goals, resulting in 4% increase in new donors compared to FY19, all while dropping the cost to acquire those donors by 34% compared to the previous year.
“We love working with Meyer Partners. They are proactive, flexible, responsive, and most importantly - successful!”