Cornhole And Optimizing Mail With Segmentation

My in-laws recently gave me the perfect gift, a Cornhole set. 

But not just any Cornhole set—a Notre Dame-themed Cornhole set (Go Irish!)!

For those of you unfamiliar with the joys of Cornhole, it’s a yard game played with beanbags and two slanted wooden boards with a hole in each board. The boards are placed a certain distance apart and the players attempt to toss beanbags into the board farthest away.

Although many players have different “house rules,” you typically get the most points by successfully throwing the beanbag into the hole, fewer points if your beanbag merely lands on the board, and no points if you miss the board.

Another fun twist in most versions of the game is that going over a certain number of points causes you to lose points and go backwards in the game. This causes players to make their final throws very carefully, usually aiming to score fewer points by landing on the board but not in the hole. At times, players will even waste a shot by throwing a beanbag onto the grass—just to freeze their current high score. 

Using the Raiser’s Edge Mail tool to cultivate your donor base is similar to playing Cornhole (bear with me here!). At different points in the game it’s beneficial to take a bigger risk for more points by aiming for the hole. At other stages it can be safer to play conservatively, and intentionally aim for a lower number of points, which will actually increase your chances of winning.

Targeting different audiences, be they major donors, past donors, lapsed donors, or nondonors, requires more strategy and skill than Cornhole. However, it does involve making a different effort at certain times based on your goals for each audience. Each group different interests and a different relationship with your nonprofit. Sharing communications with your audience in a tailored manner increases your success rate, whether measured by the funds raised, volunteer hours donated, or a stronger relationship.

Our new Blackbaud University offering, Raiser’s Edge: Optimizing Mail with Segmentation helps you learn to use Raiser’s Edge to segment your audience, match each audience to a goal, send segmented personalized communications using If-Then-Else statements, and ultimately analyze your success rate. Sign up today and learn how to use segmented communications to hit your target!

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