How to hit the right supporters with your Tax appeal

Small charity database = no benefit of segmentation, right? Wrong

Selecting your Tax Appeal audience shouldn’t be a game of Drunken Darts

Segmentation is your friend. It will save you money, provide the basis for measurement and learnings, and ensure your communication with supporters is as effective as possible. Segmentation will provide you with the basis for achieving strategic growth from your database.

Basic segmentation will give you a clear, invaluable view of who your supporters are.

Where to start?

1. Categorise broad segments and 

• Define the supporter types based on their engagement
• Donors, Bequest pledgers, monthly regular givers, very large donations ($10k+), corporate and trust donors, event participants, volunteers, campaigners/supporters, clients

2. Introduce Hierarchy

• Prioritise the supporter types based on their engagement
• A Bequest pledge is a more important relationship than a regular gift
• If supporters have more than one engagement, the most important engagement should take priority – and your communication should speak to them based on that engagement

3. Add Recency Frequency Value 

• For those supporters who have made a cash donation
• Recency of last single cash gift by months (0-12, 13-24, 25-36 etc)
• Frequency of giving – gave once, or have given multiple times
• Value of the last single cash gift

 

Then what?

If you have never done a mailing before, send your appeal to everyone, ensuring they are allocated a segment. Then measure results .

This will establish a baseline expectation for response and income across the segments – ready for you to apply the learnings t0 your next appeal

If you have produced a mailing before, but you didn’t have a segmentation system in place, consider excluding the people on your database who have never given a gift or made a meaningful engagement with your organisation. There is no value in contacting people who have never shown interest in your cause and have not responded when you gave them the opportunity to do so.

A Final Word

The most important part of the segmentation process is to produce institutional knowledge. And the key to retaining this knowledge is recording the brief, results and learnings in a clear and concise document. 

Keep everything – including who you contact and the segments each individual corresponded to.

Speak to me if you would like any advice on producing your appeal, who you should include and how to apply an effective segmentation strategy.