How to Evaluate Your Fundraising Mail

When you send a mailing out to your existing donors — or to people who have never made a gift before — how do you determine if the mailing was a success? There are several simple key figures you can use to determine if the mailing worked. Gather together a few totals from your mailing — total number of pieces mailed, total number of gifts received (the gross income from a mailing), total dollars raised, and the total you spent — and then use the information below to figure out how you did. Not meeting benchmarks? Give us a call!

Response Rate
Response rate can tell you how motivated your donors (or prospective donors) were to give to your campaign. If the response rate is not hitting the benchmarks, the mailing did not inspire enough donors to give. By definition, response rate is the number of donors who gave as a percentage of people who were asked.

To calculate the response rate:
Number of Gifts Received ÷ Quantity Mailed = Percent Response

Example:
1,500 gifts came in ÷ 10,000 pieces were mailed = 15% response

This indicates that 15% of the people who were mailed chose to make a gift to you.

Benchmarks:
When Senior Nutrition providers mail to existing donors, the response rate is typically 10-15% each year. However, if you mail only 1-2 times per year, your response rates should be higher. If you are mailing people who have never contributed to your organization before, 1 — 1.5% is a good response rate from prospective donors.

Average Gift
The average gift will tell you how much people are willing to contribute. If the average gift is lower than the benchmarks, your mailing may not be sharing enough of the reason why gifts are so important, or simply may not be asking for enough money. By definition, the average gift is the average amount contributed by a donor to the campaign.

To calculate the average gift:
Gross Revenue ÷ Total Gifts Received = Average Gift

Example:
$39,000 was raised ÷ 750 gifts were received = $52 average gift

This tells you that the average contribution on the mailing was $52.

Benchmarks:
Senior Nutrition groups tend to get average gifts between $60 - $85 from existing donors. The range is so large because average gift size varies dramatically by region. If you are mailing to people who have never contributed to your organization before, $45 - $65 is a good average gift.

Cost to Raise a Dollar
So, you know how motivated people are to give, and you know how much they are willing to contribute — but how do you know you are being cost effective in your fundraising? A simple calculation called “cost to raise a dollar” can answer this question. Keeping your cost to raise a dollar low means you are generating more money for your programs.

To calculate the Cost to Raise a Dollar
Total Cost ÷ Gross Revenue = Cost to Raise a Dollar

Example
$4,000 spent ÷ $39,000 raised = $0.10 Cost to Raise a Dollar

This tells you that it cost $0.10 to raise $1.00 — or, in other words - $0.90 of every dollar is available to fund programs!

Benchmarks
Senior Nutrition providers generally achieve a cost to raise a dollar between $0.05 and $0.15 when mailing to existing donors. If mailing people who have never contributed to your organization before, $0.75 - $1.00 is a strong cost to raise a dollar.