Truth #1: Postage costs have increased every year. Who could have predicted a roll of Forever stamps would be equivalent to a Warren Buffet-type investment?

Truth #2: Older donors with the capacity and desire to learn about a planned gift, such as a QCD or noncash gift, a charitable gift annuity or a bequest, are more likely to make those decisions based on information in printed form.

Truth #3: With digital communications, you can get analytics showing whether your emails are opened or not. With mailed communications, you might get a printed communication returned as non-deliverable, but rarely. So, how do you know your communication via USPS is reaching the intended person? The reality is that you may not know because that person may have moved—or even died.

Based on decades of compiling data updates, our Sharpe Knowledgebase^® shows that 3% of your current donors in the 65 to 90+ age group will die each year. And that percentage grows linearly with each passing year.

A printed and mailed communication piece can cost $2 or more. If your file has 10,000 names and 300 have died this past year, you are spending $600 that could be repurposed elsewhere. If the donor file has not been updated for deceased donor names for five years, then that could be as much as $3,000!

The Lie: Getting accurate data is time-consuming and expensive.

With Sharpe’s Comprehensive Data Services, the cost of identifying deceased donors from a file of 10,000 names is only $500. By providing a CVS file with salutation, first name, middle name or initial, last name and suffix designation, Sharpe will provide updates so you can remove those deceased donors. Not a lot of manual input; just a simple sort and delete. Best of all, this solution is scalable for 10,000 names to 100,000+ names and has a 90+% match rate.

Start 2025 off by resolving to wisely allocate your budget dollars to resources like data and training that will provide the highest ROI for your program.