Feeding Westchester

THE CHALLENGE

As a result of the COVID pandemic, Feeding Westchester acquired a significant number of donors who only transacted online—and represented 1/3 of the direct mail quantity.

Even after 12 months of monthly direct mail appeals, only a handful of those donors converted to multi-channel behavior by giving directly to a direct mail appeal. Our directive was to improve net revenue, so we needed to determine if it was worthwhile mailing these online only donors.

Solution

Our approach was to determine if donors who received the mail were motivated to give as a result. To make this determination, we identified the online only cohort and followed their response in the days following when they received a direct mail piece until they received their next direct mail piece. The timing varied from two weeks to a month between mail pieces. Then we identified online giving that was unattributed to any other campaign – including giving directly to the digital efforts for the campaign.

Results

Our analysis found that donors who only gave online donated an additional 25% above the directly traceable revenue delivering a 2:1 return on investment. As a result of these findings, we continue to mail the Online Only donors. Our next step will be to test alternative creative packages to this audience to maximize performance.