Perennial improve efficiency and cut costs

Perennial have been Progress users for nearly three years. Alan Cockcroft, ICT Administrator, at Perennial explains: "After we installed Progress and had the tools to properly analyse our data, we realised we actually held a very high number of inactive supporters. These were people who had not given a donation or a response in the last 5 years. We also had no source codes for them so didn't even know how they had arrived on the system in the first place!"

"These people were included in all the mailings we sent out, including 3 catalogues and 2 newsletters a year, which as you can imagine becomes very costly when you are talking about large numbers of people."

To tackle this issue, Alan firstly archived all these inactive supporters and assigned a source code and date that could identify why these names were archived. He then did a mailing with the aim of reactivating them, explaining that as a responsible charity they wished to eliminate the amount of unwanted mail they sent out. They also pointed out that under the guidelines of the Data Protection Act organisations are required to keep their data up to date. People who wished to remain on the mailing list were asked to reply using an envelope provided.

Alan says: "The response was overwhelming! Not only was there a 12% response, which was especially surprising since we had asked them to opt-in, but 58% of those who did respond gave a donation too. This means that we now have active, good quality donors and our return on investment on subsequent mailings has been significantly improved. We've also had lots of positive feedback for our honest and straightforward approach."

Alan now runs a regular data-cleaning programme. As an experienced Progress user he is able to write SQL scripts that he runs regularly to catch any anomalies in the data that has been inputted.

They now also mail all supporters who haven't donated for the last three-years before a mailing goes out to active supporters. In the same way as they did the first time with their large group of inactive supporters, names are bulk archived with a code and date that identifies them. They are then sent a letter that asks them to opt-in (and of course donate!). Once they respond they are re-activated onto the system and Alan uses the date last checked facility in the other details tab to show that this was as a response to the letter. They then receive the active supporter mailing.

Using Progress has made Perennial more aware of the importance of capturing source codes and keeping their data clean and accurate. With a database of responsive and warm supporters Perennial have cut their costs and really justified their investment in their data.

For more information on the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society, visit

www.perennial.org.uk