Should I still contact ‘unlikely’ donors?

Not necessarily. Continuing to send unwanted communications to unlikely donors, especially communications where you ask them for gifts, can alienate them & provide a bad experience, not to mention costing you money. Try these tactics instead:

• Contact them via a cheaper channel (e.g. email)

• Contact them less frequently (e.g. only in major appeals)

• If you know they are highly unlikely to give, is the smartest thing to do really to ask for a gift? Try changing your messaging to re-engage them instead. Rather than asking for money, try messaging around gratitude or impact, with no financial ask. This messaging might re-engage the donor so they give again in the future.

• At some point, you should stop mailing certain donors where their behavior tells you they will not give. These donors have now lapsed.