Whatever fundraising software you're organization is using, you need the capability to effectively segment your database to more effectively appeal to your donors. Segmentation has come a long way since we started dividing our data by current donors, lapsed donors and non-donors! This webinar will cover the three most important factors in segmentation; discuss how data should be structured to get you the results you want; and we'll share stories about segmentation successes and near-misses.

1. Effective Segmentation
Cheryl J Weissman
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2. Synthesis Partnership works with nonprofit
organizations facing or creating change to
align strategy, identity, capacity and facilities
with vision, mission and values.
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3. Affordable collaborative data
management in the cloud.
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4. Today’s Speaker
Cheryl J Weissman
President,
CJW Consulting & Services, Inc.
Assisting with chat questions: Hosting:
April Hunt, Nonprofit Webinars Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership
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5. EFFECTIVE SEGMENTATION
Presented by:
Cheryl J. Weissman
CJW Consulting & Services, Inc.
8331 Central Avenue
Morton Grove, IL 60053
cheryl@cjwconsulting.com
www.cjwconsulting.com

6. What Works Best?
 Always remember that solicitations are
about the donor, not about your
organization or need for support
 Donors give for personal reasons, so
we need to find and appeal to those
reasons

7. Creating Your List of Prospects
 Begin with those with the closest ties
to your organization.
◦ Your board and their families and friends.
◦ Your current and past donors.
◦ The people your organization serves, or
people connected to those you serve
◦ Mine your database!

8. Giving
 Identify and appeal to the self-interest or
motivation of the donors
◦ Segment based on what you know about
what interests or motivates your donors
 Ask – people don’t give unless they are
asked
◦ Segment based on past giving
 Respect donor intent – accountability is
key
◦ Segment based on what they have given to
in the past

9. Appeal to Self-
Interest/Motivation
 Relationships
◦ Constituents affiliated with organizations similar to yours, or
providing similar services
◦ Connections to people involved in your organization (friends of
Board, Staff, etc.)
 Contact(s) Information
◦ If you are tracking things like committee meeting attendance,
participation in events, etc., you can segment based on the ways
constituents are connected to your organization.
 Source(s)
◦ If you use Source(s) in a categorical way, this is a valuable
indicator of the reason they chose to connect to you.
 Subscriptions
◦ Can be used to identify ways members connect
 Board Member information, Volunteer newsletter, etc.
 Cultivate

10. Ask
 Segment based on past giving
◦ There’s more to a gift than a dollar amount
 Use all the information you can
 To what campaign did they respond?
 Where did they direct their money to be used?
 How often do they give?
 People who give on their own more than once a year
are good candidates for a structured pledge or monthly
gift program
 How do they give?
 People who pay by credit card may be good candidates
for monthly giving or EFT giving.
 Cultivate

11. Respect Donor Intent
 Respect donor intent – accountability
is key
◦ Segment based on what they have given
to in the past
 Cultivate

12. Moves Management
 Segmentation changes for prospects
for larger gifts
◦ Involves strategizing contact for people
who are not ready for an ask
◦ You may want to segment using people
who have completed a specific move, not
just at a specific stage in the process.

13. Moves Management
 Example
◦ In the qualification stage, you create three
moves:
 A letter of introduction
 A survey
 A thank you postcard
◦ Rather than prepare a segment for
anyone currently in the qualification stage,
segment for anyone who has completed
the survey

14. Moves Management
 Be sure that your system is set up in a
way that makes it easy to determine
where everyone is at any given point
in time.

15. Prep Steps
 Segmentation
 Letter content
Signer
Text
Ask
 Response device content
 Data Review
 Preliminary Counts
 Prioritization

16. Prep Steps
 Data Validation
◦ Correct message sent
◦ No multiple appeals
◦ Exclusions accounted for
◦ Exported data reviewed and confirmed

17. Contact Information
 Cheryl J. Weissman
 CJW Consulting & Services, Inc.
 866/598-0430
 cheryl@cjwconsulting.com
 Post-Webinar questions? Feel free to
contact me!

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