; Canadian FundRaiser Speaking at the Canadian Direct Marketing Association’s Fundraisers Council, Ossie Hinds, president of Cornerstone List Brokers, identified what he called “the hottest fundraising lists currently available.” Here they are!
- Canadian Fundraising MultiDonors
- The Economist
- The Financial Post
- Health
- Scientific American
- Select Mail
- Target Mail
- Telemedia
- Wellness Letter
Warning fundraisers that what he had to say “should not be considered safe,” Hinds said that “times are changing, and if you continue to prospect in the same old way, you’re going to get clobbered.”To stay on top of the highly competitive direct mail game, Hinds said fundraisers should be more aggressive and innovative; for example, they might consider using semi-private mailer databases managed by independent third parties.
Some of the benefits would be no merge-purge costs; payment for lists would be on a net-net name basis; there would be greater access to names for geographic-specific mailings and dramatic reductions in the amount of time it takes to get lists. Better names would be available and there would be a greater opportunity to test rented lists because overall costs would be lower.
According to Hinds, the industry needs to make better use of outsourcing, especially in the areas of database maintenance and receipting. He feels that organizations should also consider renting their donor lists because it is already happening in the U.S.A. (the American Lung Association, Greenpeace, March of Dimes). A final suggestion was that fundraisers should undertake non-competitive co-mailings.
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