Try and try and try again

How many asks does it take to get to the center of the donor base?  Your very best donors will give after 1 or maybe 2, dependent upon the timing in relation to their last gift and the amount they have given as relates to a tax deduction.  The very worst folks are never going to convert.  Identify those folks who fit this population and box them out - don't waste time money and effort on them until you have maximized your results from every other population.  The balance of your donor/constituent base falls somewhere between.

This matters to a great extent in working with limited resources.  I know for instance that it takes an average of 9 asks for every gift that I get.  That does not apply across constituents - meaning that I don't get a 11% response (that would be awesome!) but that I need to ask each constituent, on average, nine times to get a gift.  If you consider that I have a list of 40,000 folks who have given at some point and over 90,000 who have never given, it is quickly clear that resources have to be concentrated appropriately as getting to an average of 9 asks from that donor population alone is 360,000 efforts.

In laying out the solicitation efforts for the year, I look at which segments I can get to the point where they have reached that saturation point.  How do I determine that?  Based upon more specific contact needs. While 9 is the average, keep in mind that the most loyal donors give much more quickly but the timing of the solicitation matters much more - hence by limiting the communications with this audience to match type and timing of consistent support, you can reduce that count while maximizing the returns.  On the flip side of that, the non donor populations often take 11, 12 or even 13 asks before they give and there is a large portion that simply wont give each year.  Creating creative, varied ways to ask these folks is where the greatest opportunity exists.