Every few months my mailbox (the real one) gets stuffed with alumni magazines from colleges and independent schools to whom for one reason or another I made a gift.
These gifts were several years ago and I am not a repeat donor. I am a classic aging SYBUNT that is just sucking up marketing and print dollars.
Why, I ask myself whenever these magazines are delivered, is someone at the college not concerned with updating the database and cleaning it?
Makes me wonder how many dead people they mail to.
Sure, I could request that they stop mailing but if the organization is actively involved in building relationships with valid constituents, then they should recognize a lost cause (me as a donor to their school) and spend their alumni money more wisely and effectively.
I agree with the tenet that someone who gave once is more likely to give again, but after a certain number of years without active support, it would be wiser and more strategic to send me a postcard or simple news flyer if keeping me in the know about your school is the intended goal.
You can ask everybody in your database for support by degrees, but you need to allocate your resources and segment the asks.
An alumni magazine sent to a non-alum is probably not going generate the kind of response that makes the expenditure worthwhile…
Do you know who’s in your donor database?
