From Data to Donors: How CMDI Builds Smarter Fundraising Mailings

From Data to Donors: How CMDI Builds Smarter Fundraising Mailings 

Behind every successful fundraising mailing is a carefully curated list, and that’s where CMDI comes in. Building an effective direct mail strategy isn’t just about sending letters. It’s about using clean, segmented, and strategic data to connect with the right supporters. Whether a candidate is brand-new or a seasoned campaigner, our mailing list process helps maximize fundraising results and minimize wasted effort.  

Helping clients create fundraising mailings is one of CMDI’s most important services. Here’s a look at how we produce them!  

Step 1: Start with the Right Data 
Before we can create a mailing list, the client must have a donor dataset.  If the client has run for office before, the campaign should have a list of the donors who have given in the past. The dataset should include the donors’ names, addresses, and giving histories.  

The number and dollar amounts of donors’ gifts are important information! First-time candidates might not have their own datasets, but they usually start building their own lists with the help of their county or state party and collecting emails and addresses at campaign events. They can also rent a prospecting list, as explained in Step 3.      

Step 2: Clean Up and Standardize 
CMDI provides data hygiene services, which help clients make sure that their donor databases are as clean as possible. We run a dupe check to identify any duplicate donor records.  Mailing duplicates is not only frustrating for donors, but it also adds unnecessary expenses for campaigns.  

We also check our clients’ datasets against the National Change of Address (NCOA) database.  If a campaign last used its fundraising list in an election two to six years ago, some donors have probably moved since the list was last updated. 

Step 3: Grow with Rented Lists 
Some first-time candidates, and clients who want to expand their fundraising efforts, rent prospecting lists from a list broker. Their goal is to reach out to supporters who haven’t donated yet. These lists are essentially other campaigns’ donor databases developed from previous campaigns. For example, a senate campaign could rent a donor list that belonged to a candidate for governor in the same state. If a client decides to build a mailing list from more than one dataset, we run a merge purge. Most likely, there will be overlap between the lists, since donors often give to more than one campaign. If the list isn’t de-duped, donors who appear more than once in the database will receive more than one copy of every mailing. Merge-purges find and delete duplicate records.  

Step 4: Segment Smarter 
To create a mailing list from a donor dataset, we first segment, or divide, the dataset into different categories of donors. We assign a mail code to each category. We code donors who made one contribution in the last election cycle separately from donors who made more than one contribution. We also segment the dataset by contribution amounts, such as 0-$50, $50-$200, and $200 plus.   

Step 5: Flag and Suppress Unwanted Records 
We flag the records of donors who the campaign might not want to send mail. Donors marked as deceased or donors who have asked to be removed from the mailing list are usually flagged. Sometimes, we flag other types of records. Maybe a candidate doesn’t want to mail anyone who lives in his or her opponent’s zip code. Clients can choose to suppress flagged donor records so that they aren’t included in a mailing list.    

Step 6: Target Your Audience 
Next, we discuss with the client exactly which donors the campaign wants to reach.  Clients usually don’t want to mail every donor in the database at once. When the client chooses which types of donors to include in a mailing, we put together a list of mail codes that represent those segments of the dataset. Our clients also choose which suppressions they want to exclude from the mailing list.    

Step 7: Pull the Final List with Precision 
To build a mailing list, we pull the donor records from the mail codes our client chose to include and suppress the records with the flags that the client chose to exclude. It is very important that this step of the process be carried out by an experienced programmer. Otherwise, it would be easy to accidentally create duplicate records. For example, a donor might be included in one mail code for contributing twice during the last election and a different mail code for contributing once during this election cycle. We prioritize the mail codes to make sure that each donor record is only pulled once.   

Step 8: Close the Loop with Updated Data 
CMDI’s services don’t end once a fundraising mailing has been sent. We offer caging and data entry services to process the contributions that campaigns receive in response. We update the client’s dataset so that it includes the latest donations. If a client is renting a prospecting list, we label the return forms so that we can easily tell which donors are already included in the client’s database and which need to be added. It is important to keep the client’s fundraising dataset up-to-date and ready for the next mailing! 

Building an effective fundraising mailing list is both an art and a science. At CMDI, we bring years of experience, advanced tools, and attention to detail to every step of the process. From cleaning and segmenting data to targeting the right donors and updating records post-mailing, our goal is to help campaigns raise more with less waste. Whether you're a first-time candidate or a seasoned political veteran, a strong mailing list can make a big difference, and CMDI is here to help you get it right.