Strengthening a Donor Community for Higher Revenue: Cleveland Foodbank

Since 1979, the Cleveland Foodbank has been working toward solving the problem of hunger in Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland Foodbank is the largest hunger organization in Northeast Ohio, providing more than 27.3 million pounds of food to more than 456 hunger organizations last year. The Foodbank provides enough food to serve over 21.3 million meals to hungry men, women and children in Northeast Ohio.Cleveland Foodbank logo

Program Objectives

  • Increase direct mail fundraising from previous donors.
  • Obtain renewed and ongoing support from lapsed donors.
  • Efficiently acquire more new donors who will yield strong long-term value.

Program Strategy

  • Find more new donors with greater potential for an increased long-term value.
  • Add new renewal effort to an existing program that will generate incremental net income.

Tactics

  • Increase personalization to donor segments that will generate greater revenue.
  • Send personal notes to reactivate donors who have not given in twelve months.
  • Rank long-term value by list in order to acquire better new donors.

Results

  • In the first four campaigns of the fall, Cleveland Foodbank exceeded their average gift goal by nearly $6 per appeal, and their gross revenue goal by an average of $17,000.
  • In just our first year of handling their overall program, we helped to increase their annual net income by over $100,000. This was a 40%+ increase. Every one of their mailings generated more income than the year before.