I’m truly not old enough to remember when physicians abandoned the use of leeches. But, I am old enough to recall the origins of asking amounts.

The year was 1970. Computers – big mainframes, not PC’s and The Cloud – had just begun to edge out the heavy, old metal Addressograph plates and the traditional shoeboxes filled with 3×5 index cards posing as donor records.

That year my friend Richard Viguerie, the right wing fundraiser and organizer of all things evil, and I began experimenting with the possibilities of actually using a donor’s past behavior to create what became known as the ‘ask string’. And since we didn’t compete for business – he represented those horrible right wingers, I focused on the more noble and progressive left – we compared notes.

Over dinner in a Japanese restaurant in Rosslyn, Virginia we agreed that the most effective ‘ask strings’ were 1.0 Highest Previous Gift (HPC), 1.5 HPC, 2.0 HPC and Other $_____. Medieval fundraising (the leech-equivalent) was born. To the detriment of almost everyone, generations of direct response fundraisers have followed it ever since.

Shame on us. And shame on the consultant priesthood for not challenging the theology.

In pursuit of atonement and expiation for my fundraising sins (Richard will have to seek his own), I repent that generations of direct response fundraisers have slavishly copied those ‘formulae’. For that I’m truly sorry.

Fast forward 45 years. It turns out the fundraising gospel we preached was quite faulty. It simply won’t get you into fundraising heaven anymore.

Why? Research. That’s why.

Despite the revulsion folks like my friend Jeff Brooks at Future Fundraising Now harbor for meaningful research, there’s a whole body of behavioral science and solid academic research, not to mention live testing data, that should lead you to dispose of the leeches and turn to more modern fundraising medicine.

Kevin Schulman, my colleague at DonorVoice in a brilliant post on his blog summarizes the most appropriate and effective ways to calculate ‘asking amounts’.

• For Acquisition and Reinstatement – use the most recent contribution (MRC), not the highest, contribution [HPC]  Kevin explains why in his post.

• For Active Donors on Your File – average gift beats MRC and, in fact, MRC is actually detrimental. Again, Kevin explains why.

Kevin’s post also includes a fascinating academic paper on asking amounts produced by economists and statisticians at Ghent University.

Now that I’ve confessed and steered you toward a more ‘round Earth’ view of fundraising in this year-end period, when asking amounts and ask strings really matter, I can only encourage you to read Kevin’s post, with the white paper he’s attached.

And yes, please demand an explanation from your consultants and copywriters as to why they’re still using leeches.

Kevin, you deserve a raise.

Roger