Return to Sender: When Will Physical Addresses Go Away?

Eric Carlstrom
11/05/2014

While recently attending the Northeast Advancement Services Conference hosted at my alma mater Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), I asked the audience a question:
Do we see a time in the future when tracking physical addresses goes away?

Sneers, eye-rolling, and a mild case of whiplash in the audience ensued. But I’ve since reflected more on the conversation and found this study quoting “Fund-Raising: Evaluating and Managing the Fund Development Process.”

Source: Supporting Advancement

There are several arguments for maintaining a robust database of physical addresses. We, too, at EverTrue are believers that an address can be a great capacity indicator. But let’s take a look at the most common argument:

Physical mailings are the most effective way to raise money.

My rebuttal to this is simple: it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we expect mailings to be our most productive way to raise monies, and we therefore invest a disproportionate amount of time, energy, and funds into these mailings, we’ll see results.

But can we prove that mailings are the most effective way to raise money? Who among us is tracking the ROI of physical addresses? We pay good money to keep our data clean; we pay vendors and we pay ourselves tens—if not hundreds—of thousands of dollars every year. We spend even more on printing and postage. What are the average dollars in and dollars out?

What can we learn from sales and marketing innovators who obsess about ROI ?

What I’m willing to concede—for right now: mailings can be the most effective way to reach some constituents. Keywords: for right now, can be, some.

It’s the “some” that matters most—how do we think about segmenting our donor base? What’s the physical address ROI for young alumni versus the rest?

What if…

We deleted addresses from our CRM tomorrow? Doom or an advancement revolution?
We took the $100,000 (or insert your number here) that we spend on mailings for young alumni and ran a Facebook campaign instead?
We only mailed existing donors for renewals? The study illustrated in the graphic above shows that donor acquisition via direct mail actually loses money!

Do you see a world when physical addresses go away? Tell us in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!

Value in 10 years

In today's dollars

4. Continue to Steward Donors

Your relationship with the donors who give to your endowment doesn’t end when you secure their gifts. Because your endowment exists to make a difference in the long term, your supporters will want you to keep in touch about its progress. Ongoing stewardship means keeping donors updated about your endowment’s performance and impact. A report that strengthens your relationship with donors should cover:

The fund’s balance at the start and end of the year
Spending amounts and allocations
How the fund’s returns compare to your investment targets
A short narrative detailing the specific impacts the endowment achieved

Create a report for each endowment rather than sending an identical document to everyone. A donor who endowed a scholarship wants to hear about the students it supported, while a donor who endowed a building fund wants updates on construction projects.

5. Upgrade Your Endowment Management Tools

Your endowment management tools should make applying your spending policy across every fund easy. Investing in dedicated software is especially useful as your endowment grows. Handling unitization in spreadsheets might work for a few funds, but as you begin to manage dozens or hundreds of gifts, dedicated software can save your team time spent manually calculating gains and losses for each one.

Why Nonprofits Need Dedicated Endowment Management Software

Dedicated endowment software brings accuracy and consistency to every part of the management process, from tracking individual funds to improving security. See how these solutions compare to a spreadsheet-based approach:

nfographic table outlining the information below.

How These Methods Compare:

In managing your endowment with traditional spreadsheets, you may see:

High administrative burden: Manual entry across disconnected systems
Limited security and audit footprints: Reduced version control and audit trail visibility
Difficulty with donor transparency: Spreadsheets provide only static data that is difficult to turn into custom results.

By using dedicated software, you are likely to find the following improvements:

Lower administrative burden: Automated fund tracking and calculated allocations
Enhanced security and audit footprint: Audit-ready reconciliation with clear tracking
Greater donor transparency: Connects with reporting platforms

Dedicated endowment management software keeps your organization compliant while freeing up the time your team once spent manually managing spreadsheets.

Secure Your Endowment with Balance by EverTrue

Effective endowment management begins with excellent accounting. Balance by EverTrue handles unitization, applies spending rules, and produces audit-ready reports, so your team can spend more time on the donor relationships that built the fund in the first place.

Turn your data into a clear picture of long-term impact. Combine accurate fund accounting with donor reporting that showcases impact.
Connect with the tools you already use. Pair Balance with Impact by EverTrue and ODDER by EverTrue to create and deliver compelling digital endowment reports that you can send to donors with ease.
Know where every fund stands in real time. Check market values, gift history, and available spending for any fund. Then, share view-only versions with your team, so everyone stays informed.

With Balance, your team can stop spending all your time on manual management and instead add balance to your endowment workflow.

Additional Resources

To learn more about managing your endowment and other ways that technology can help your organization, check out these additional resources:

Webinar: Building a Seamless Relationship Between Endowment Finance and Advancement. In this webinar, we cover the keys to un-complicating your institution’s financial endowment reporting process. Explore how building a connection between your finance and advancement teams can lead to happier donors and happier staff.
The Best Alumni Management Software Solutions in 2026. Alumni management software allows your university to maintain an active community that supports your school in a number of ways. Review top software solutions.
Donor Segmentation: How Organizing Donors Boosts Retention. What is donor segmentation, and how can you use it to boost retention? Learn the need-to-know information in this guide from EverTrue’s fundraising experts.

Less stress, higher endowment funds. Discover how Balance provides the organization, security, and accuracy your endowment needs. Request a demo.

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