Getting the Gist of Rental Lists with Dan Sonners, Ep #43

Episode 43

With Benjamin Johnson and Dan Sonners

On this week’s Frontier FM, it’s the greatest crossover event since the Jetsons met the Flintstones! Dan Sonners of the Dynamic Nonprofits w/ Dan Podcast is on the show to discuss all things list rentals and direct mail marketing. The two dive into how list brokerage works, the rise of email marketing, reaching Gen X, and great questions from the Frontier team.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...

  • Getting to know Dan Sonners and his marketing journey [0:45]

  • Dan and Ben’s perspective on the rise of email marketing in the fundraising world [5:30]

  • What in the world are list rentals and multi-buyers? [18:37]

  • Dan’s thoughts on the Gen X Factor, their value as donors, and marketing best practice to reach them [28:28]

  • Dan’s biggest piece of advice for fundraisers [37:32]

  • Managing the expectations of small charities around acquisition [39:44]

  • The rental list recommendation process and the value of a list broker [45:32]

  • Ethics in rental lists and fundraising marketing [51:43]

Making the LinkedIn connection

If you missed the last episode of Frontier FM about using LinkedIn to grow your charity and your nonprofit network, listen here! If it weren't for the social business platform, this podcast episode might not exist. Ben met Dan on LinkedIn when he started creating posts to find other like-minded fundraisers. Dan believes that charities and marketing agencies alike shouldn’t view different marketing mediums as competition, but as pieces of a strategy meant to work together. Digital is not the mortal enemy of direct mail! A solid best practice is to develop a strategy that incorporates all mediums to appeal to a wide variety of audiences and donors. And when donors have an excellent experience, they often give more and stay involved with the charity longer. It’s no wonder Ben and Dan connected! What ideas can you share on LinkedIn that could lead to your next fundraising collaboration?



The rise of email

Both Dan and Ben have a unique perspective on the advent of email marketing for nonprofits and charities. As a list broker at Conrad Direct, Dan has seen the evolution of email marketing from the very beginning. At its conception, email campaigns didn’t look much different than direct mail campaigns, if they looked different at all. Some charities even scanned their mailers into a computer and sent the image without hyperlinks. Surprisingly enough, they still got donations! Thankfully, times have changed, and while Dan can’t take credit for it, he believes his 15 years working with nonprofits have made an impact. Through trial and error, he found that emails designed for engagement (such as surveys or clear calls to action) are a great strategy to reach new and existing audiences. Obviously, the medium has evolved over time, but its initial discovery as a marketing strategy changed the fundraising world forever.

Rentable growth 

If there’s anything that smart charities understand, it’s their need to acquire new donors. A great way to do this that you may not be familiar with is through list rentals, AKA, using outside sources of data to try and acquire new donors. This typically looks like renting multi-source data from a company that has compiled information from various demographics and psychographics. However, another method is exchanging or trading database information with organizations that have goals similar to yours. While Dan admits this can feel scary at first, he reminds listeners that it can be a really potent tool for growth and networking. For more details on list rentals and how you can use them to grow your donor base, listen to this episode!

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Dan Sonners 

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