Calling your lapsed and inactive supporters is cost effective, reduces database attrition and can lead to substantial revenues. How to make the most out of this segment before they disappear.

Today's charitable market place is more competitive than it has ever been. The average donor receives countless requests for donations on a monthly basis. As a result, acquiring new donors thru the mail has become more costly and keeping supporters active and loyal has become more challenging. Gone are the days of inexpensive mailings and today, without a comprehensive stewardship program, renewal rates and gift frequencies can drop dramatically. Although using the mail for donor acquisition and retention is still an effective channel and can deliver a strong multiyear ROI, when it is used in tandem with the phone, response rates and revenues can rise dramatically on a warmer group of potential (and many times forgotten) supporters: The Lapsed & Inactive Supporters.

The majority of lapsed and inactive supporters maintain their affinity or belief in the organization and continue to support its goals and objectives; however, they have stopped making gifts for what could be one of many different reasons. Perhaps they have moved and are no longer receiving appeals or perhaps they have had their attention and cheque book swayed by a more relevant or urgent appeal. These supporters may have stopped giving as a result of a change in their situation or employment, or may have simply forgotten to send back the response form. The fact remains that the majority of these former supporters are still believers and many will give again – they just need the extra ask!

A number of lapsed and inactive donors will renew their support in response to a mail appeal; however, not everyone responds to the mail or finds this their preferred channel. You may be communicating with a number of supporters who are willing to make a gift, but let's face it, people are busy, people forget and with demands from work and family, returning a reply form or taking the time to go to a web site is not always a top priority. The more time that passes from a supporter's last gift, the more expensive it is to re-activate them and then if they fall too far into the inactive file, they become just as costly as acquiring a new donor. In fact, for each year a supporter falls further into a lapsed or inactive file, the cost to reactivate them can double. The key is to be pro-active and re-activate as many former supporters as soon as possible. This is where the phone can play a very useful roll – to call on lapsed and inactive supporters who have not responded to recent mail appeals. Time and time again, when calling these supporters after they have not responded to a mail appeal, this one-2-one interaction and pro-active approach is just what they need to make that gift and it offers a different channel that can appeal to many donors. In fact, the cost to re-activate lapsed and inactive supporters over the phone is routinely less than acquiring new ones through other channels. For an organization looking to maximize their donor base and number of unique donors, these segments represent some of the best investments.

So who do you call in your lapsed and inactive file? Some organizations have thousands of lapsed and inactive supporters that would cost a fortune if you were to try and contact each and every one. Although an entire supporter universe can be included in some mail appeals, a lapsed and inactive tele-fundraising program needs to have its data segmented and calling approach systematic to have the best value. Lapsed and inactive supporters should be segmented by the year of their last gift and then each of these segments should have its GROSS and NET cost to re-activate, by phone, tracked independently. These programs should start with the most recently lapsed supporters and then work their way back. As the data falls further into the inactive category, the GROSS and NET cost to re-activate will rise and when properly segmented each inactive year segment's GROSS and NET costs can be used as a comparison with historical costs to acquire/re-acquire a supporter through the mail. With both of these numbers in hand, an organization can then allocate its available budget across both channels to find the best mix that optimizes the number of total respondents.

The final key to success for a lapsed and inactive telephone program is to ensure the messaging in the call stresses the immediate importance for the former donor to renew their support. In most cases, lapsed and inactive supporters have not lost interest in the cause or organization; they have just not made a recent gift for whatever reason. The messaging for this type of program needs to help the supporter remember why it was that they became a donor in the first place and then stress to them how important renewing their support, at this time, can make a huge difference.

Lapsed and inactive supporters can be a profitable segment to contact by phone, especially since these supporters tend to have similar gift frequencies, renewal rates and future Life Time Values as newly acquired supporters...not to mention they make great monthly conversion prospects 3-4 months after they have been re-activated. Although lapsed and inactive tele-fundraising programs are rarely immediate revenue generators, their long term value and the return on investment is very strong. This future revenue, combined with a lower GROSS and NET cost than many acquisition programs makes contacting this segment by phone a viable group to include (or make room for) in your annual fund.

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