The American Heart Association (AHA) will soon replace at least some of its general market fundraising appeals with more targeted efforts, thanks to a new three-year, multimillion dollar contract with database marketing agency Merkle.
While the association has been a client of Merkle’s since 2003, the agency will now be hosting the nonprofit’s core database system, formerly hosted by Experian, in addition to the analytical insight, segmentation and contact optimization for its donor renewal and acquisition plans Merkle had been providing previously.
The new relationship will enable Merkle to craft more targeted campaigns, according to Kelly Kennedy, SVP at Merkle. “Within a prospect universe, there are unique audiences such as seniors and baby boomers,” Kennedy said. “Instead of coming up with what creative agencies come up with — three pages of labels to send to a general audience — we can look at the audiences and find out what kind of appeals will appeal to those audiences.”
As an aggregator of compiled data, Merkle will also provide the AHA with data overlays based on key demographic and other data to help the association gain insight into how different groups of people respond to different appeals.
“We believe the integration of our relationship with Merkle’s team on strategy, along with its database solution, will enable the necessary analytics and innovation to fuel our future growth,” said Sherry Minton, director of direct response at the American Heart Association, in a statement.
The American Heart Association drops between 60 million and 65 million pieces of acquisition mail annually and has 25 million names in its donor file, making it one of the largest nonprofit groups in the country.
The nonprofit will also begin using MoneyMakerT, the core of Merkle’s enterprise-wide fundraising database solution. This will provide the association with both desktop access and insight into numerous operational and strategic components of donor campaigns.
