COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Optimizing Direct-Marketing Strategies in Non-Profit Fundraising: An Integrated Framework for Segmentation, Estimation and Control

This project proposes an integrated framework that innovatively combines finite mixture models andMarkov decision processes to provide insights into links between fund-raising decisions and their impact on the performance of not-for-profit organizations This research is motivated by (i) the funding pressures facing non-profits as a result of the economic crisis of 2008 and the ensuing recession, (ii) higher service needs from the public and higher (efficiency and effectiveness) expectations from donors, (iii) changes in technology that allow non-profits to inexpensively collect vast amounts of donor data and, thereby, the need for a comprehensive framework to exploit this newly available information to optimize direct-marketing strategies.