Advice Please on Mailing Lists

we using mailing lists heavily and we buy the data, a good way to get to the point is by including video of what you do, its different, we can also help with some lists if we know your intentions..

We may be able to help,

At The Data Partnership we have been working with Charities sourcing new donors for them. We have been supplying leads of consumers who have indicated the wish to donate to various charitable causes.

We can offer this data for rental in order to increase your marketing activates and ROI.

If you would like further information regarding the data we have please contact Tony Hessey on 01449 775501 or email [email]anthony@thedatapartnership.com[/email]

John, it sickens me when I hear stories like yours. Frankly, there are lots of direct marketing agencies out there who, in my view, treat charities appallingly. They bully and regard charities as gullible and easy money.

Unfortunately too many people got into this business because they want to get rich, not because they want to help people.

If you are prepared to risk a conversation with an organisation that doesn't specialise in ripping off small charities, give me a call.

Thank you to everyone for your very helpful replies.

Jay

Hi there,
As an afterthought... We have a database of people that have answered surveys stating their prefered charities types which we've crossed-matched against investment data to produce a small file of about 200,000 charity prospects.

We've found charities very sceptical of such databases so we're willing to let any interested charities test small portions of the database at cost (our bureau charges us a small fee supply the data) in return for using their testimonials in our marketing litereature.

I can be contacted on 020 70173411.

Jason Andrews
Evolution DM

Hi there,
You might like to try Occam. They work with numerous niche charities...

[url]http://web.occam-dm.com/content/charitable-and-humanitarian-prospect-lists[/url]

We've been a data supplier to them/their clients for years and they have a lot of expertise in your area.

Best regards,
Jason Andrews - Evolution DM

Hi,

I work for a medium size Christian Charity. We arrange all our own reciprocal mailing, prospect mailing and insert campaigns in house. My colleagues and I would be happy to share with you in detail how we do this and which lists etc that we use.

Please do feel free to contact me on 01303 852804

Johanna Baxter
Direct Marketing Administrator
Mission Aviation Fellowship

Mailing to clergy may be productive, but as someone who has both mailed to them and been on the recieving end as a baptist minister - a word of caution!
Ministers are extremely busy people who are professional, mailing to them should be treated as B2B (Business to Business) rather than mailings to individuals. If you are directly fundraising and can get hold of the appropiate list, go for treasurers rather than clergy, in my experience it gets a better response rate.

David

Hi There,

Perhaps we could help you. Although we are a Direct Marketing Company with very competitive prices, we own a successful list called "The Christian List" and have found that it works very well for Christian Charities, you have the Clergy and the Key Christians. You are able to select who you would like to target, which denomination, males or females all named contacts. Do please let me know if you would like anymore information on the list?

Regards

Irene

[email]irenebird@portland-direct.com[/email]
[url]www.portland-direct.com[/url]

Sharing lists is certainly an easy way of accessing a new donor base, BUT ....

Do take care not to breach the data protection act and pick up a lot of ill-will. For you to send your message via a separate charity list, the individual concerned must have consented to the sharing of their data. As most organisations will use phrases like "we will not share your data with other third parties" into our fair collection notices, this would make sharing illegal.

The relevant bits of the DPA are Principles 1 and 2; collect information fairly, and no stitching people up.

To give you a some idea of compliance, ask to see the fair collection notices of the people that are prepared to share their lists with you.

Duncan Smith

If you want to continue to explore DM, despite your experiences then start with reciprocal mailings. Most Christian agencies have extensive mailing lists and some are beginning to we willing to allow others to share those mailings!
However You may also want to consider putting your mailer as an insert into the appropiate christian newspapers or magazines.
Either way you do need to be willing to invest. It is simply not worth spending the time or money on creating a brilliant leaflet and letter simply just to send that to 100 people and get 3 or 4 replies. At that end of the sclae your time is better spent on more personal approaches!

David

I am most grateful to the two people who have replied to my query, and for the advice given.

I will be looking into lists availability, but will not be looking to work with any companies in the direct marketing line as my previous association with a direct marketing company virtually bankrupted us.

A good test cell size depends on your response rate. Ideally, work on 100 responses to have a statistically reliable result which would enable you to roll out with confidence. By roll out, I mean upscale your campaisgns and expect to get similar results. So for example, if you typically get 3% response to your cold mailings, your minimum cell size for tests should be 3333 records. If you get 2% it should be 5000 records. There are no hard and fast rules, but most list owners work on a 5000 minimum, and this is for a reason - any less and although it may work, it wont necessarily be a statistically valid result.

Whatever volume of names you want to mail, remember you need to order slightly more names than you want to mail, since there will be list cleaning and possibly overlap with your house file to consider. If you order 5000, after cleaning this might drop to 4800 and you'll have shortfalls of data.

With regard to appropriate data sources, best performing will be other charity donor lists - so if you can swap your data this will help you to access some great performing files. If you cant swap, or your trustees object to swapping, then some charity lists are available for rental. Non-charity lists also work, for example lifestyle lists can work well, especially when selecting individuals who have answered a postal survey and indicated they support a particular cause. Mail order and magazine subscriber lists can also work, especially for high level asks.

If you require a full list proposal (which is free) contact EDM 0208238 5950 or [email]info@edmmedia.co.uk[/email]

We are one of the leading list brokers and managers for the charity sector - clients vary from the large scale NSPCC to the niche animal charity clients. Large scale or smaller fundraisers, we work with them all.

There are guidelines set-out by the DMA about Direct Marketing to specific groups that are defined by their religion/ethnicity/sexual persuasion etc. These can be viewed here:

[url]http://www.cap.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/00633A1C-DFCF-4F6E-A954-FBF26D9C384A/0/religious_offence.pdf[/url]

The benefit of an ageny or an experienced marketing shop is that they will (should) understand the myriad intricacies surrounding sensative markets.

List brokers offer a valuable service but do not necessarily have the broader expertise required for a topic such as this. After all, their interest isn't always in finding the best list, but finding the list with the most gross profit margin.

Maximum Impact Marketing work with a number of registered charities and fundraiser, providing marketing lists and marketing services for organisations such as The National Police Community Trust, Lifetrain Trust, Church Army, St Mungos, British Red Cross and many others. Contact Martin Smith on 01621 815659 for an informal chat.