A donor giving through a donor-advised fund or an IRA can’t get a tax receipt for it, so many organizations just leave them out of the mailing entirely, going silent on some of their most loyal donors.
Who
The Lambda Chi Foundation supports 10,000+ collegiate members through 175 chapters, spread across the country and mostly volunteer-run. Right now it’s in the middle of a $60 million capital campaign, the largest in its history. At the same time, the Foundation runs direct mail and prospecting centrally on behalf of individual Chapters raising money on their own.
The Challenge
A network that is spread out, run mostly by volunteers, makes it hard to know where the real giving potential sits. The Foundation needed to find high-capacity donors across chapters it doesn’t staff directly, then prioritize outreach accordingly. That meant knowing which donors could handle a major ask and which needed a lighter touch at scale.
It also meant solving one specific problem: donors who give through donor-advised funds or IRAs don’t get a standard tax receipt. Leave them out of a mailing, and you go silent on donors who’ve already proven they’re loyal. Send them something implying a deduction they can’t claim, and you’ve created a bigger problem than the one you started with.
Why EverTrue
DonorSearch by EverTrue analyzed 112,000 alumni records and surfaced an estimated $33.9 billion in donor capacity across the network, insight the Foundation couldn’t have built chapter by chapter on its own, right inside the Salesforce CRM the Foundation already runs on.
That data let the team spot which donors were likely giving through retirement accounts or donor-advised funds. Pledgemine by EverTrue turned that insight into a tax-impact mailing built just for them: a short, direct impact statement paired with soft-credit messaging, acknowledging their giving without implying a deduction that didn’t apply.
The Foundation is now applying that same approach to its $60 million campaign, splitting boomer donors into two groups: those with $10,000 or more in capacity, who get routed to a higher-touch major-gift track, and everyone else, who gets marketed to at scale. It’s the same idea with one new layer, DonorSearch deciding who gets which kind of outreach, and Pledgemine sending it.
The Results
This year’s direct mail results:
- Tax-impact mailing, targeted at likely DAF and retirement donors with soft-credit messaging: 417.71% ROI, a 2.69% response rate, and a $5,000 gift tied directly to that approach
- Spring reactivation mailing: 184.85% ROI on a 2.36% response rate, run as a multichannel push alongside the Foundation’s giving page and event texting
That’s on top of a longer track record. Since 2019, DonorSearch insight has helped the Foundation raise $13.5 million, not counting a further $4.2 million in investment income, and fulfill $7.2 million in grants. One local chapter, the University of South Dakota, used that same insight to raise $3.6 million against a $3 million goal.
Now the Foundation’s $60 million campaign, the largest in its history, is running on that same combination: DonorSearch surfacing who to prioritize, Pledgemine turning it into mail built for each group.
“Data is the past, present, and future of efficient fundraising. Without these insights, I don’t know how we could possibly go forward with a $60 million raise, the largest in Lambda Chi’s history.” — Nick Bratvold, Vice President for Philanthropy, Lambda Chi Foundation
A Foundation running a national capital campaign and a chapter-by-chapter mail operation at the same time doesn’t get to mail everyone the same letter and hope. DonorSearch told them who needed which conversation, and Pledgemine made sure that conversation actually reached them.