Landing page: A web page where people go once they click on an online advertisement or search listing. In online fundraising, the landing page is usually the page where the donor makes a donation, having arrived there by clicking a link in an email appeal letter.
Lapsed donor: A donor who has not sent a gift during the last 12 months.
Laser printing: Process of personalizing direct mail letters and reply devices with information unique to each individual donor file, and usually performed by a lettershop on a commercial laser photocopier. Also called lasering.
Lettershop: A business that addresses, folds, inserts, sorts and applies postage to direct mail fundraising packages, and delivers them to the post office for mailing.
Lifetime value: The long-term value of a donor or member, such as the total revenue received during the time a donor or member is active. Useful when calculating how much to spend to acquire a new donor.
Lift note: Also called a lift letter. A second letter included in a fundraising package to reiterate the main points of the letter, or to give other reasons for making a donation. Often signed by a celebrity or person of influence.
List: Also called a mailing list. Names and addresses of individuals who share a common characteristic (such as all being women, or all being people who donate to organizations that protect the environment).
List broker: A specialist who helps a not-for-profit organization rent or borrow a list from a list owner (usually a business or another not-for-profit). Services include research, selection and recommendation of lists.
List cleansing: The process of keeping a mailing list accurate and up to date. Includes removing duplicate records, formatting addresses to postal standards, and updating addresses of those who move.
List compiler: An individual, service bureau or business that assembles mailing lists from directories, government records and other public sources.
List exchange:A transaction in which two organizations swap donor, member or subscriber lists, usually one for one, so that each organization can mail to the other organization’s list.
List maintenance:The never-ending process of updating and correcting donor records in a house list.
List manager: The organization or individual, often a list broker, that manages the promotion of a mailing list for rental or exchange.
List owner: The individual or organization that owns the right to rent or lend a mailing list.
List rental: The process of renting a mailing list for a one-time mailing.
List sequence: The order in which names and addresses are kept in a mailing list. Most lists today are kept in postal code (zip code) order. Some are in carrier route (postal delivery) order.
List test: A mailing sent to a small, random sampling of a list (perhaps 10,000 names) to determine if mailing to the entire list will be profitable.
Live stamp: An ordinary postage stamp, sometimes affixed to a carrier envelope or reply device to boost response.
