Using Data To Develop The Donor Journey

EMILY’s List is the only organization committed to electing pro-choice Democratic women to local, state, and federal offices.

Since 1985, EMILY’s List has helped elect over 115 pro-choice Democratic women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 to governor’s seats, and over 800 women to state and local office.

Challenge

Our challenge was to leverage the 25th Anniversary of EMILY’s List to drive significant growth: 

• Build a large network of donors, through direct mail and telemarketing acquisition, who have a strong affinity to the organization.
• Increase the active donor population through improving yearly renewal rates and monthly engagement strategies.
• Create a stable monthly sustainer giving program to help support the organization through difficult fundraising environments.

Solution

A detailed data analysis allowed us to develop a donor journey for each donor segment and then build a comprehensive integrated strategy from acquisition through renewal, upgrade, and sustainer programs.

Execution

Modeling, including demographic and psychographic donor trend analysis, was used to guide acquisition strategy across the direct mail and telemarketing channels. Each renewal series/donor engagement was carefully timed and included – depending on the donor – a pledge, front-end or back-end premium item, matching gift, or other technique. Finally, we used a high touch telemarketing program that leveraged insider political information to build a relationship with the donor and upgrade them to the sustainer program.