INTRODUCTIONFace-to-face fundraising was adopted in the UK for the first time in 1997. It differs from traditional forms of street collection in that the solicitor is typically employed by an agency, rather than being a volunteer, and the donor is asked, not for a cash gift, but rather for a committed, regular gift deducted automatically each month from their bank account or credit card. The technique has grown enormously in popularity, recruiting many hundreds of thousands of new donors each year to both charities and pressure groups alike.
Despite rising public interest and concern only a handful of extant studies have addressed the performance of fundraising techniques and outlined the returns that might be expected. To date no one has examined the returns accruing from direct marketing activities in fundraising. In this paper we present the results of a study of 150 UK charities Adrian
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