Direct Mail Fundraising - How Donor Acquisition Mailings Differ from Donor Renewal Mailings

Your job as a direct mail fundraiser is to make new
friends every year and keep them for as long as possible.
And to do that you need two kinds of letter, acquisition
and renewal. Understand the differences between
these two letters and you'll improve your
results.

PURPOSE

Acquisition mailings are designed to persuade non-donors to mail you their first gift. They aim to acquire
donors. Renewal mailings are designed to encourage
past donors to give again. Their aim is to renew, or re-solicit, existing donors.

AUDIENCE

Acquisition mailings are mailed to strangers.

Renewal mailings are mailed to friends.

COST

Acquisition mailings tend to be inexpensive, costing
anywhere from $0.50 to $1.00 a piece.

Renewal mailings tend to be more expensive, costing
anywhere from $0.75 to $7.00 a piece.

PERSONALIZATION

Acquisition mailings, to keep costs down, tend to be
one-size fits-all. They rarely involve any
personalization beyond the salutation.

Renewal mailings tend to be more involved, and may
include personalized salutations, personalized ask
strings based on the donor's previous giving levels
and personalization in the body of the letter.

SEGMENTATION

Acquisition mailings are usually mailed to everyone
on a prospect list.

Renewal mailings are usually segmented so that
each donor segment in a house list (monthly donors,
major donors, lapsed donors, first-time donors) gets
a different package.

PREMIUMS

Acquisition mailings often include premiums
(personalized note pads, return address labels,
greeting cards).

Renewal mailings rely less on premiums.

FREQUENCY

Acquisition mailings are mailed only a few times a
year (somewhere between one and four times a year).

Renewal mailings are mailed around six times a year
and as often as 12 times a year.

RESPONSE RATES

Acquisition mailings tend to generate acceptable
response rates of between 0.5% and 2.5%.

Renewal mailings tend to generate acceptable
response rates of between 6% and 12%, sometimes
as high as 20%.

NET-EFFECTIVENESS

Acquisition mailings usually lose money (but gain
donors).

Renewal mailings almost always generate a net
return.

About the author
Alan Sharpe publishes Direct Mail Fundraising Today, the free, weekly email newsletter that helps non-profit organizations raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors. Alan is the author of Breakthrough Fundraising Letters and 25 handbooks on direct mail fundraising. Alan is also a speaker and workshop leader who delivers public seminars and teleseminars on direct mail fundraising. Sign up for Alan's newsletter at http://www.RaiserSharpe.com

© 2007 Alan Sharpe. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "About the author" message).

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Data Acquisition - Product Reviews

Generally data acquisition means to acquire data. However, in computer terminology, data acquisition is defined as the process of uniting real world data to produce the data to be maneuvered by the computer system. The data is in the form of waveforms or signals. These signals are obtained using different instruments and devices. The data acquired can be stored on the computer using vendor supplied software and the control can be made with the use of programming languages like Basic, Pascal, FORTRAN, C etc.

Data acquisition systems, as the name suggests are products or systems used to gather data or information from certain source. The data acquisition systems are distinguished on following basis: serial communication, USB, parallel ports and plug-in boards.

Without going much in depth, below are the details of different data acquisition boards.

Signatec PDA1000: This is the data acquisition product made by Signatec. The PDA100 is a 64-bit data acquisition board compatible with PCI device equipments. The "Plug and Play" feature is standard in all PCI devices. The analog bandwidth of DC to 500 MHz and digitization rate of up to 1 MHz makes it remarkably unique in its class. The bus that it uses is a Signatec Auxiliary Bus (SAB). This bus can allow data of 500 MB to be transferred per second. Multiple PDA1000 boards can be connected to the same PDA1000 DAQ board in the master-slave configuration through an interconnect port. It has six selectable signals ranging from 200 million volts to a maximum of 3.2 volts.

OME-PCI-1002 series: This data acquisition board is made by Omega. It features 12 bits 110 KHz analog to digital converter PCI board. The PCI board provides 32 single ended or 16 differential inputs along with 16 digital input and 16 digital output channels. This PCI board series provide sampling rate of 110 KS/s. However, it may vary within the series depending on whether the channels are single or multiple. Unlike many other company boards, the omega OME-PCI-1002 comes with software development kit compatible with Windows 98/NT/2000/XP. This software development kit includes DLL files for high level programming languages and OCX files for Active X programming.

iOTech DaqBoard-3000 series: This is a multifunction data acquisition board embedded with four 1 MHz PCI boards. Unlike OME-PCI-1002 board, this board has 16 single-ended or 8 differential analog inputs with the option to expand them up to 64 single-ended or 32 differential analog inputs. DaqBoard-3000 series has 24 high-speed digital I/O lines. There are four 32 bit counter input channels with quadrature encoder capability. It supports multiple DMA channels and USB version of this board is also available in market.

Advantech PCI-1670: This is a high performance PCI board with GBIB interface. PCI-1670 board works fully with IEEE 488.1 and 488.2 standards. It has full functionality with windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP and MS-DOS operating systems. The "Plug and Play" feature automatically assigns I/O address and provides powerful and easy to use configuration utility. It also has full support for drivers and libraries of C/C++, C++ Builder, Visual Basic and Labview.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Data Acquisition

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Labels: Data Acquisition Product Reviews

Data Acquisition: Open-Ended Questionnaire Response Format

Often open-ended questions require 'probes' from the interviewer. A probe is encouragement from the interviewer for the respondent to elaborate or continue the discussion. The interviewer may say, "Is there anything else?" or "Would you elaborate on that?" Probes aid in clarifying the respondent's interests, attitudes and feelings. Today computers are playing an increasingly important role in data acquisition - analysing and recording probes to open-ended questions.

Open-ended questions offer several advantages to the researcher. They enable respondents to give their general reactions to questions like: (1) What advantages, if any, do you think ordering from a mail-order catalogue company offers compared to local retail outlets? (probe: what else?). (2) Why do you have one or more of your rugs or carpets professionally cleaned rather than cleaning them yourself or having someone else in the household clean them? (3) What is there about the colour of product that makes you like it the best? (probe with: what colour is that?) (4) Why do you say that brand is better?

Note that in questions 2 and 4, the open-ended question is part of a skip pattern. In question 2, for example, the respondents have already indicated that they use a professional carpet cleaning service and do not depend on members of the household.

Another advantage of open-ended responses is that they can provide the researcher with a rich array of data. Respondents are answering from their own frame of reference. Advantages are described in 'real world' terminology rather than laboratory or marketing jargon. Often it is helpful in designing promotion themes and campaigns. It enables copywriters to use the consumers' language. This rich array of data can now be captured even in computer-assisted interviews, streamlining the data acquisition process.

The inspection of open-ended data acquisition can also serve as a means of interpreting closed-ended questions. This analysis often sheds additional light on the motivations or attitudes behind the closed-ended response patterns. It is one thing to know that colour ranks second in importance out of five product attributes. But it might be much more valuable to know why colour is important. For example, a study on mobile home park residents might uncover a great deal of dissatisfaction with the trash pick-up service. However, further inspection of answers to an open-ended questionnaire may uncover that the reason for the dissatisfaction may have been caused by freely roaming dogs overturning the trash receptacles and not shoddy work on the part of the trash pick-up service.

Similarly, open-ended questions may suggest alternatives not listed in a closed-ended data acquisition questionnaire. For example, a previously unrecognised problem relating to the trash pick-up service might be uncovered from an open-ended data acquisition questionnaire. Open-ended questions are not without their problems. One factor is the time and money consuming process of editing and coding.

Editing open-ended responses requires collapsing the many response alternatives into some reasonable number. If too many categories are utilized, data patterns and response frequencies may be difficult for the researcher to interpret. If the categories are too broad, the data is too general and important meanings may be lost. The open-ended question data acquisition process may also be influenced by interviewer bias. Although training sessions continually stress the importance of verbatim recording of open-ended question, it is often not practised in the field. Open-ended questions may also be biased toward the articulate interviewee. A person with elaborate opinions and the ability to express them may have much greater input than a shy, inarticulate, or withdrawn respondent. Yet both could be equally likely prospects for a product.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Data Acquisition

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Labels: Data Acquisition, Open Ended Questionnaire

Data Acquisition: Deciding On Questionnaire Wording

It is a skill developed over time and subject to constant improvement. Four general guidelines are useful to bear in mind during the wording and sequence of each question posed in the data acquisition process.

(1) The wording must be clear: If the researcher decides that a question is absolutely necessary, that question must be stated so that it means the same thing to all respondents. Ambiguous terminology should be avoided, such as "Do you live within five minutes of here?" or "Where do you usually shop for clothes?" The first example depends on the mode of transportation (maybe the respondent walks), driving speed, perceived elapsed time and other factors. It would normally be prudent to show the respondents a map with certain areas delineated and ask if they live within the area. The second question depends on the type of clothing, the occasion, the member of the family and the meaning of the word where.

Clarity also implies the use of reasonable terminology. A questionnaire is not a vocabulary test. Jargon should be avoided and verbiage should be geared to the target audience. Every prospective respondent represents a separate frame of reference. That is, each person is unique in personality, mental ability, experiences, education and views of the world. Therefore, the questionnaire designer must use terminology native to the target respondent group and not to research jargon. The first task of wording questions, then, is to translate questions into everyday language.

(2) Select words as to avoid biasing the respondent: A question such as, "Do you often shop at lower class stores like K-Mart?" evokes an obvious response. Similarly, "Have you purchased any high-quality Black and Decker tools in the past six months?" also biases respondents. Questions can be leading, such as, "Weren't you pleased with the good service you received last night at the Holiday Inn?" These examples are quite obvious. Unfortunately, bias may be much more subtle than is illustrated in these examples.

Sponsor identification too early in the interviewing process can also distort the data acquisition process. It does not take long, for example, for a person to recognize that a survey is being conducted for Miller beer if, after the third question, every question is related to this product. Similarly, an opening statement such as, "We are conducting a study on the quality of banking for Northeast National Bank and would like to ask you a few questions" can influence responses. Sometimes, of course, the true purpose of the study must be disguised to obtain an unbiased response.

(3) Consider the ability of the respondent to answer the question: in some cases, a respondent may have never acquired the information to answer the question. Asking a man, which brand of sewing thread is most preferred by his wife would often fall into this category. Asking a respondent about a store or brand that they have never encountered creates the same problem. When a question is worded in this manner, it often pushes the respondent to give a wild guess. This creates measurement error, since uninformed opinions are recorded and the data acquisition process renders false statistics.

(4) Consider the willingness of the respondent to answer the question: The memory of the respondent may be totally clear, yet the respondent may not be willing to give a truthful reply. Reporting of an event is likely to be distorted in a socially desirable direction. If the event is perceived as embarrassing, sensitive in nature, threatening, or divergent from one's self-image, it is likely either not to be reported at all or to be distorted in a desirable direction. One technique is to ask the question in the third person. For example, "Do you think that most people charge more on their credit cards than they should? Why?" By asking about "most people" rather than about the respondents themselves, researchers may be able to learn more about the respondents' attitude about credit and debt. This data acquisition method makes embarrassing topics less intimidating for the respondent to discuss.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Data Acquisition

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Labels: Data Acquisition, Deciding On Questionnaire Wording

Acquisition cards perform many functions

Adlink's latest data acquisition cards provide a 10% increase in performance over the company's previous generation of multifunction DAQ cards.

Two new multifunction data acquisition cards from Adlink Technology offer 16 and 32 channels of 16bit high performance DAQ, each with eight different input ranges The PCI-9222 and PCI-9223 cards combine data acquisition, digital I/O and motion control, and support sampling rates up to 250 and 500Ksample/s, respectively and an update rate up to 1Msample/s Both cards are ideal for mixed-signal testing, laboratory research and factory automation.

The Adlink PCI-9220 series provides a variety of I/O functions, including TTL digital I/O, 2MHz 32-channel high-speed digital I/O, a four-channel 32bit 80MHz general purpose timer/counter, pulse generation and four channels of PWM outputs.

Each card has an encoder input with programmable trigger suitable for applications requiring AI or AO based on position feedback.

"Adlink's latest DAQ cards provide a 10% increase in performance over our previous generation of multifunction DAQ cards", says James Gau, Vice President of the Measurement and Automation Product Segment at Adlink Technology.

A single-button autocalibration feature ensures reliable performance and accurate measurements, regardless the environment.

The PCI-9222 and PCI-9223 cards include a powerful WDM driver for C/C++, VB, Delphi, C++ Builder and Net programming languages and full device drivers for Matlab and LabView.

Labels: Acquisition cards perform many functions

Storage options expand acquisition choices

Vmdrive dual-slot storage products now include rotating media options as well as several larger capacity solid-state storage options.

Vmetro has released additional storage alternatives for its Vmdrive Available since January 2007, the Vmdrive 6U VME/cPCI slot storage products now include rotating media options as well as several larger capacity solid-sDesigned to meet demanding military and aerospace applications, the Vmdrive enables deployment of recording applications in rugged conduction-cooled or commercial air-cooled environments.

The rotating media Vmdrive offers 300 or 450Gbyte storage capacity.

This dual-slot VME or cPCI alternative is available in commercial air-cooled models.

The Vmdrive rotating media version stores data at 100Mbyte/s via dual channels of 2Gbit/s Fibre Channel.

For demanding applications that require solid-state storage, the Vmdrive is available with dual channel 2Gbit/s Fibre Channel interfaces using both high and low-density media.

The low-density Vmdrive stores data at 60Mbyte/s and is available with up to 256Gbyte of storage capacity.

The low-density models occupy a single VME or cPCI slot in air and conduction-cooled versions.

High-density Vmdrives offer 146 and 500Gbyte storage capacity.

Available as a dual-slot air-cooled solution, the high-density solid-state stores data at 120Mbyte/s.

The Vmdrive is a member of Vmetro's storage family that span requirements from benign lab to high altitude environments using Fibre Channel storage area network.

Vmetro's storage solutions provide highly flexible, high performance media that are scalable to meet a variety of application needs.

The Vmetro JBOD, SBOD, RAID and solid-state products deliver optimal data throughput and extremely high bandwidth for real-time data acquisition.tate storage options

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Board diagnoses TFT displays at a distance

The Artista remote control board monitors the internal temperature, the ambient temperature, the TFT function, the backlight function and operating hours.

New from Display Technology, the Artista is a remote control board used for remote diagnostics of TFT terminals The Arista can be connected via Ethernet for diagnostics on client PC TFT terminals or via RS485 (up to 1000m) as a stand-alone TFT terminal

The client PC data collection software runs under Windows XP embedded, and malfunction reports are generated automatically.

The Artista remote control board monitors the internal temperature, the ambient temperature, the TFT function, the backlight function and operating hours.

It also detects motion and fan operation.

The physical data are saved as XML files on the client PC continuously and can be retrieved with standard programs.

Labels: Board diagnoses TFT displays at a distance