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Success in the raising of political dollars has its price.
Making the regular addition of new names is a necessary investment so the first step in this process is list selection. Donor lists are made up of those people who have at one time or another made a documented contribution to a candidate or committee. Some organizations make these lists available for a price and some lists are available as a matter of public record. The persons on these lists are prime prospects because they have contributed before through the mail. But remember, everything has its price and these types of lists are the most expensive to acquire. A list of proven donors can cost 15 cents per name or more depending on the freshness of the data. Most list brokers require a purchase of 5000 names or more. Therefore, before you address your first envelope or lick your first stamp, you have already made a substantial investment into reaching your potential contributors. Compiled lists are lists that are pulled together from various sources such as automobile registrations, social registers, membership directories, etc. The voter registration file in your state is perhaps the best example of a compiled list. This is a cheap way to find names, but the fact is, voter files are consistently the least effective source of prospect names for direct mail fundraising. The only things we know about them is their age, their party affiliation, and that they are registered voters. This tells us nothing about their financial status or whether or not they contribute. If this is all you have to work with, use it the best way you can. Use the selection criteria available to target your best contributors by age, party, residential area and who has voted in the past. Mail-order lists are lists made of people who have purchased products or subscribed to publications through the mail. Most list companies offer recent expirees at a reducee cost, as they make less responsive prospects than active subscribers. You can target from these lists by looking at the types of publications they have subscribed too. Another way to acquire a prospective contributor list is through an exchange. Many list owners/brokers will offer their lists on a name-for-name exchange with yours . . . saving you some up-front costs. Be sure, however, that the names you are exchanging for are as good as the ones you are giving. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Everything has a Price! in Women in Politics is owned by . Permission to republish Everything has a Price! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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