Donor segmentation can be pretty dry stuff — especially for a creative director.
But like most CDs, I’m obsessed with results. And anything that leads to better results gets my attention.
And something very, dare I say, provocative is happening in the world of donor selects that everyone in fundraising ought to know about.
After years of working to improve on the limitations of traditional segmentation, the analytics team here at Masterworks has taken a real leap forward: an all-new approach we call Masterworks Response Index, or MRI.
Our method differs dramatically from old-fashioned RFM (recency, frequency and monetary criteria) segmentation. Rather than simply grouping donors according to past behavior, MRI improves on RFM by taking donor selection down to the individual donor level — actually assigning a unique score to each donor on your file.
What does this mean to you? Since these rankings represent both the response and income potential of a campaign, it means you’ll be able to anticipate not just the likelihood of a donor gift, but also its probable value.
By taking into account more than just giving history — including such crucial factors as seasonality, giving cycles and gift timing — MRI helps you identify which donors are most ready to give and when they’re most ready to give.
MRI not only improves net revenue on appeals and newsletters, but also makes renewals, lapsed donor reactivation and pledge acquisition more profitable.
This kind of insight can truly transform your marketing programs by helping you keep your partners current, fully engaged and actively supporting your cause.
Every Masterworks client that has tested, or fully implemented, MRI has seen an improvement in net income. MRI has quickly become a powerful tool for driving offer development, sharpening fundraising strategy and improving ROI for our clients.
These case studies demonstrate the potential for you and your organization:
- In a head-to-head fundraising appeal test for Prison Fellowship, we were able to achieve an 8% lift using MRI (vs. traditional RFM) and a 10:1 incremental ROI on the model investment.
- In a test of multiple fundraising appeals for Alliance Defending Freedom, MRI contributed to a 35% lift in revenue year over year. What’s more, the organization is raising 20% to 30% more appeal revenue since they started using MRI.
- Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission raised an additional $50,000 from the first two direct mail impacts using MRI.
- Orange County Rescue Mission saw a 4% lift in appeal net revenue after just 4 weeks of results from their first impact using MRI.
Bottom line, MRI more accurately identifies the donors on your file who are most likely to give — and give generously. At the same time, it eliminates from consideration donors who are not likely to give.
You’ll have the greatest chance of reaching the right donors at the right time with the right message.
Now, even a creative director can see the value in that.