When to cease mailing

Jill Hempfing

How many years do you keep mailing to a non-donor?  We have numerous records that have never given and have been mailed to for over 30 years.

JoAnn Strommen

Wow, I know we would not be mailing for 30 years.  Not sure of your org's purpose but if they haven't given in the past 10 years why would they start now? Do you know that you have correct address info?  I trust you are asking because you are thinking of your expense in doing this.


It depends on what type of mail in some cases.  Now with a university, we include all alum for newsletter type mail but most is done via email.  For solicitations, in my experience we usually went back 3 years, sometimes 5.  

Jill Hempfing

Thanks JoAnn.  My thoughts as well.

Dariel Dixon

We stop mailing solicitations after 5 years of no gifts.  I don't know if it is cost-effective to continue to mail anytime after then.  

Jill Hempfing

Thank you, Dariel, for your response.  I appreciate it.

Catherine Burns

Hi Jill. We go back three years for most types of donors, but only one year for some segments e.g. lapsed regular givers who have never given to a direct mail. We also do occassional longer lapsed donor mailings, usually going back 5 years. It is well worth segmenting your mailings based on recency of their last gift and then comparing to the costs of mailing the segment against the income. You will quickly see where it becomes unprofitable to continue mailing donors who have not given for some time.

Jill Hempfing

Thank you, Catherine.  Very helpful!