WHAT THE LISTS NOW SHOW
OBSERVED RESULTS · 2022–2026
The contact rates have fallen—and pretending otherwise costs money
Social-lead, donor-upgrade and reactivation contact rates have all fallen, increasing the hours needed to complete campaigns.
The lists are getting harder. I have watched it happen in the real contact figures, and it is damaging margins.
The numbers moved
Social-media leads used to contact at around 50%; over the last two years that has fallen to about 45%. Donor upgrades moved from roughly 75% to 65%. Reactivations have fallen over about four years from around 50% to 33%.
Below ten per cent is a haemorrhage
When a list falls below a 10% contact rate, the campaign is consuming agent time and dialling effort for very few conversations. At that point, carrying on without changing the plan can mean losing money on every hour.
Different lists need different treatment
We can dial hard on random-number polling because many generated numbers do not exist. We do not treat customers, donors or people who raised their hand that way. They know the organisation, and careless repeated calls can make them hate it.