ASPCA Cuts Churn By Updating E-Mail Addresses

Never mind the dog: One animal-focused organization has generated a donation by cleaning up after its donors.

“People can change email addresses as easily as they change their socks,” says Debbie Swider, emarketing director at ASPCA, adding that the organization’s procedure for updating contact information isn’t as efficient as it could be.

As a result, the ASPCA saw an 18.5% churn rate within its email file, somewhat higher than the 17% standard for nonprofits, according to 2010 research from M+R Strategic Services and NTen.

Even worse, an aggressive early 2010 effort to generate signups yielded an increase in bad email addresses. This was largely due to two reasons: First, the ASPCA began advertising in a broader swath of media outlets. “When you try to go into other channels, you will get more bad emails,” Swider says.

Second, the organization offered an incentive (frequent flier currency) for signing up. The ASPCA tested this, Swider says, knowing it would generate higher incidence of opting out or cancellation of sustaining membership pledges. Additionally, it realized the incentive would generate signups from people more enthused about the reward than the organization’s mission, and who would be less careful about entering their contact information.

The ASPCA used Real Time Email Address Correction (REACT), an offering from email hygiene firm FreshAddress, to boost its standards for information entered and maintain double opt-in procedures. The organization is currently evaluating the efficacy of this initiative, and will use six, 12- and 18-month benchmarks to determine the value of donors generated through incentives.

Simultaneously, the ASPCA launched a reactivation campaign, in which it submitted contact information for lapsed donors to FreshAddress. During 2010, FreshAddress provided new contact information for nearly 106,000 lapsed donors. Reactivation efforts pitched to these individuals featured “welcome back” language.

Email hygiene efforts which fueled both of these initiatives have yielded a 1.05% conversion rate, with an average gift amount of $38.25. And the amounts above don’t include December, the ASPCA’s strongest fundraising month.

Even better, cutting down the amount of email sent to bad addresses has reduced the number of hard bounces. Given that Internet service providers look at bounce rates when determining whether a given e-mail sender is a spammer, this has helped the organization maintain a good reputation.