Gay-Rights Group Turns Activists Into Donors

The Human Rights Campaign has the names of 1.5 million people in its database who have expressed an interest in the group’s cause but have never given money.

These people have taken action online, attended an event where they’ve signed a petition, or filled out a postcard to send to legislators—but they have not yet opened their wallets.

The supporters on this list seem like an obvious pool of prospective donors. But sending direct-mail appeals to that many people would be hugely expensive.

So the gay-rights organization worked with a consulting company that analyzed the group’s information along with demographic and consumer data like shopping information and magazine subscriptions to determine which people were most likely to respond to a solicitation in the mail.

Some of the findings confirmed the organization’s expectations.

For example, older people were more likely than younger ones to give to a direct-mail appeal. Other findings were counterintuitive; for example, people who lived in red states were more likely to make a gift than those in blue states.

Every time the organization learned something surprising, the findings ultimately seemed logical to employees as they talked through them, says Susan Paine, director of analytics and strategy at the Human Rights Campaign.

For example, red states are more conservative on gay rights, which motivates supporters in those areas, Ms. Paine says.

“When you think about it, it starts to make sense,” she says. “A lot of the blue states have marriage equality, and red states don’t.”

The Human Rights Campaign is optimistic the research will help boost the performance of its direct-mail appeals by encouraging activists to make their first gifts.

In January, the organization sent mail appeals to 190,000 people chosen based on the analytics research. The share of people who made a first-time gift was 32 percent higher than after a similar mailing in September that was done before the research was conducted.