Long Tail Development & Not For Profits

In patron and donor supported organizations, The Long Tail is often been dismissed as too costly or too time consuming – but in these economic times perhaps a second look is due.

In current marketing lingo the term Long Tail dates back to a 2004 Chris Anderson article in Wired Magazine describing the concept, which roughly says that selling a large numbers of low volume/obscure items is a viable revenue strategy. As Anderson says, "The economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of hits toward a huge number of niches in the tail." There is an analog for patron/donor supported organizations.

Stay with me on this, as you aren't selling rare books or renting obscure videos which typically benefit from a Long Tail, but there is a correlation, an analogy between Long Tail marketing and your lists of volunteers, friends and other occasional patrons and donors. McKinsey, the consulting organization, suggests a new methodology for segmentation, segmenting donors/patrons through their usage or participation patterns.

If you organization doesn't do patron or donor segmentation in fundraising call me as this may be too much of leap, but a trial in targeting by participation or usage patterns, may help in these difficult times.