June 25, 2019
By Jack Doyle, Amergent President/CEO
With years of donor advised fund giving behavior in hand, it’s safe to say your average DAF donor makes a gift ten times larger than your average direct mail donor.
The average DAF donor gives grants up to/including $1,000; the average DM donor gives gifts up to/including $100.
Do you exchange DM donors’ names up to $100?
Would you consider exchanging your DAF donor names up to $1,000?
Before you answer, consider this:
- The average list exchange test is 5,000 or 10,000
- The equivalent in dollars suggests testing an exchange of only 500 – 1,000 DAF donors
- Yes, you would withhold (not share) the larger DAF donors
- If you exchange with five organizations, you’d have 2,500 – 5,000 DAF account donors to test; if you could exchange with more than five, you will improve your testing outcome
The initial gift would be $500+ and subsequent gifts would be significant.
On average, half of your own DAF donors probably haven’t used their giving account to give you money in the last 12 months, so finding more donors with a DAF giving account is required to make this income stream grow.
And yes, I did jump off cliffs when swimming with like-minded friends—and we’re still here to tell you about it.
