Welcome to Lester Inc

Our Experience

For over 30 years, Lester’s fund raising division has implemented thousands of successful personalized cost-effective, Annual Fund, Capital, Membership and Specialty Campaigns for leading Universities, Colleges, Independent Schools and Non-Profit Organizations.

Lester works in partnership with our clients to create campaigns that deliver maximum results. Lester strives to upgrade donors, re-engage lapsed donors and convert non-donors. Our experienced and caring callers work on our clients’ behalf to increase the retention rate, improve upon the level of contribution and provide valuable data enhancement.

At Lester, there are no limitations on the time or effort that go into campaign development and execution. We will effectively represent your cause by precisely blending resources into a cost conscious campaign. Lester delivers the best value for your fund raising budget.

Fundraising Challenges

The fundraising landscape is rapidly changing due to the advent of social networks, crowd-funding platforms, cloud computing, predictive analytics, and mobile communication. These technologies offer the promise of improving donor participation, retention, and reactivation rates for fundraising campaigns.

Despite the promise of these technologies, most non-profit organizations, have yet to realize significant improvements in their fundraising. Participation at public and private colleges has declined from 11% in 2012 to 9% in 2014. Retention rates have not budged and remain at about 60 percent in 2014. Lapsed donor reactivation rate has stagnated at 26% during this period.

Lester's Fundraising Division's mission is to help non-profit organizations unlock the promise of these technologies.

Our Solution

Lester's offerings – Insight, Acquire, and Cultivate - provide an integrated solution that covers the entire fundraising cycle. These solutions are aimed at addressing three key challenges in fundraising: increasing new donor acquisition; reducing loss of existing donors; and reactivating lapsed donors.

Insight

Insight brings the power of predictive analytics (sometimes called machine learning or data mining) to fundraising.

Most fundraising campaigns do not sufficiently differentiate between constituents that are likely to give versus those that are unlikely to give. The result is a lot of wasted effort chasing constituents who do not want to give or cannot afford to give. Insight fixes this core problem. Using predictive analytics Insight develops a solicitation plan – frequency of solicitation attempts, communication channel mix, messaging, and ask value – by constituent and thereby increases ROI.

Learn More

Acquire

Acquire is a multi-channel, integrated communication platform designed to increase contact rates.

The main reason most fundraising campaigns fall short of their goals is because the majority of constituents are never reached. Even in successful telemarketing campaigns, despite repeated attempts, more than 50 to 60 percent of the constituents are not contacted. Acquire helps increase contact rates and as a result improves campaign performance.

Learn More

Cultivate

Cultivate helps improve donor retention with a personalized communication that speaks to donor's interests and motivation for giving.

Weak engagement is one of the main reasons that donors do not renew their pledge. Most organizations rely on a templated “thank-you” letter and other mass-market messaging to foster engagement with a new donor. Unfortunately, this mass communication is not sufficient to create a bond with the donor. As a result, a sizable portion of donors do not renew their pledge.

Learn More

why lester

Innovative and
Unique Solution

Lester is one of the only companies to have combined the power of internet marketing technologies to improve performance of traditional direct response marketing campaigns to increase donor acquisition, retention, and reactivation.

Tailored Solution to
Meet Need

Lester’s solution suite – Insight, Acquire, Cultivate – can be tailored to your needs. You have the choice of using the entire portfolio of offerings or select those that best meet your needs. Need only the analytics then start with Insight.

Proven Track
Record

Effective fund raising campaigns require a delicate mix of experience, professionalism, and integrity. When donor relationships and contributions are at stake, professionals who can become an extension of a client's organization is the key to success.

Consultative
Approach

Our marketing and operations team is committed to helping you exceed your fundraising goals. We will work closely with you to strategize and build a solicitation plan that leverages the power of Lester’s tools to increase the likelihood of success.

What Our Clients Have to Say

"We may not be the largest client with the biggest budget but the team at Lester has always made us feel like we are a priority. We appreciate their partnership and industry knowledge, helping us maximize our budget and build strategies for success."

Lisa Vuolo

"I have been a client for many years, and Lester has always provided top-notch campaign management and great results at a very fair price. Their attention to detail and true service to our donors is unsurpassed in my experience."

Colleen Tabor

"Thomas Edison State College Foundation has worked with Lester, Inc. since 2008. In our time as a client we have received the highest customer service and attention to detail. The callers that Lester, Inc. provided for our campaigns were experienced professionals and compassionate individuals who took true interest in our fundraising mission."

Jennifer Guerrero

Some of our current clients include:

Thirteen/WNET located at 825 Eight Ave, New York, NY 10019

Jewish Federation of MetroWest New Jersey located at 901 NJ-10, Whippany, NJ 07981

Casaundra Beach is the Senior Vice President of Lester Inc. Responsible for marketing, sales, and operations, she brings over 20 years of experience that covers all facets of outsourced marketing. She is instrumental in all aspects of client services and satisfaction in both Non-Profit and B2B arenas with her main focus continually on providing client solutions. Casaundra is a magna cum laude graduate of Southern New Hampshire University.

Casaundra Beach

Senior Vice President of Lester Inc.
Phone Number : 1-203-488-5265
Ext : 1216
Email Address : cbeach@lesterusa.com

Our Experience

Fundraising Challenges