The same SoldierStrong program looks completely different depending on which data you trust. External vendor revenue inflates yields. Celebrity attribution masks creative quality. Every conclusion changes when you segment by data source.
Tier 1 · DB Donors
$0
7.62¢/send
3.05M sends · 454 polls The real program health
Client Donors
$0
22.12¢/send
135K sends · 54 polls Existing donor affinity
External Vendors
$0
⚠️ Unknown true yield
Limited data · 51 polls Revenue picture only
01 — THE THREE TIERS
One Program. Three Completely Different Stories.
Every DonorBureau program mixes data from three sources. Analyzing them together produces dangerously misleading conclusions. Here's why separation matters.
Revenue by Data Source
$375K looks impressive until you see where it came from.
● DB Donors · Tier 1
7.62¢
Yield per Send
Revenue
$232,156
Sends
3,045,841
Polls
454
ROI
2.5x
Net Revenue
$166,417
This is the truth. DB-owned list, DB-scored donors, DB-controlled sends. Use this for all creative quality decisions.
● Client Donors
22.12¢
Yield per Send
Revenue
$29,879
Sends
135,105
Polls
54
ROI
9.9x
Unsub Rate
2.01%
Different audience, different economics. People who already donated to SoldierStrong. Their 2.9x premium is real — but mixing them in with DB Donors inflates creative scores.
● External Vendors
⚠️
Yield Meaningless
Revenue
$113,190
Known Sends
99,592
Vendors
10
Click Data
3 of 10
Jack Daly
$74,468
Revenue is real, attribution is not. Most vendors report revenue without send volume or clicks. 5 of 10 vendors report zero sends. Using this for creative scoring is malpractice.
🔑
The key insight: When you mix all three tiers together, SoldierStrong's overall yield is $0.114/send. Strip out externals and client donors, and DB Donor reality is 7.62¢ — a 33% haircut from the blended number. Every strategic decision based on the blended view is compromised.
02 — THE MIRAGES
Three Illusions That Died Under the Microscope.
Toggle each switch to see how the same metric transforms when you strip out external and client donor data. These aren't small adjustments — they're completely different conclusions.
All Data (Raw)DB Donors OnlyCr-138 · Martha MacCallum Christmas
🎅
The Cr-138 Mirage: "#1 Creative of All Time"
$0.221
Raw yield/send
→
9.32¢
DB D10 yield
At $0.221/send, Cr-138 appears to be the greatest creative SoldierStrong ever produced. But $5,643 of its $13,607 total came from Jack Daly external sends — revenue reported with zero send volume. Another $960 came from Beyond Direct (also zero send data). Strip the external revenue and the picture changes dramatically. The DB D10-only yield is 9.32¢ — respectable, but not #1. Not even close.
All Data (Raw)DB Donors OnlyEmoji vs No Emoji Performance
😀
The Emoji Lift Illusion
+13%
Raw emoji lift
→
~0%
DB-only lift
Raw data shows emoji creatives yield $0.117 vs $0.112 without — a seemingly meaningful +13% lift. But when you isolate DB Donors only, the emoji effect evaporates. The "lift" was driven by external vendor attribution: holiday creatives (which naturally use emojis like 🦃🎅) also happen to be the ones picked up by Jack Daly's external lists. The emoji wasn't the cause — it was the coincidence.
All Data (Raw)DB Donors OnlySaturday vs Wednesday Yield
📅
The Saturday Spike Illusion
+143%
Sat vs Wed (raw)
→
+28%
DB-only
Raw data screamed "send everything on Saturday!" at $0.237/send vs Wednesday's $0.097 — a staggering 143% premium. But the DB Donor-only view tells a different story: Saturday 11.37¢ vs Wednesday 8.86¢ — a 28% premium. Still better, but it's not "rearrange your entire send schedule" better. The raw spike was inflated by external vendors who happened to report revenue on Saturdays.
Every conclusion you draw from unsegmented data is potentially a mirage. The same numbers tell opposite stories depending on which tier you're reading.
03 — THE REAL STARS
Creatives That Win At Every Tier.
Forget inflated totals. These creatives perform across DB Donors, Client Donors, AND Decile 10 — proving their quality is intrinsic, not inherited from data contamination. These are the ones to clone.
★ CHAMPION
Cr-19b
Dana Perino · Easter · "Don't Delete"
19.94¢
DB Donor Yield
$16,560
DB Rev
83K
Sends
8.1x
ROI
★ #2
Cr-13
Dana Perino · Evergreen · "Step Up"
18.02¢
DB Donor Yield
$25,173
DB Rev
140K
Sends
7.2x
ROI
★ #3
Cr-25
Dana Perino · 4th of July
13.73¢
DB Donor Yield
$23,351
DB Rev
170K
Sends
5.2x
ROI
🔍 Why These Are the Real Stars
Compare their cascade journeys — consistent performance at every stage, not inflated by external spikes.
Creative
DB Donor Yield
D10 Yield
Client Yield
Stages Reached
DB Revenue
Cr-19b
19.94¢
—
—
11 polls
$16,560
Cr-13
18.02¢
—
48.22¢
23 polls
$25,173
Cr-25
13.73¢
18.55¢
242.78¢
26 polls, 10 stages
$23,351
Cr-138 ⚠️
~6.5¢ est
9.32¢
—
10 polls (3 external)
~$7,964
⚠️ Cr-138 included for comparison — the "mirage" creative. Its $13,607 total includes $5,643 from Jack Daly external (zero reported sends). Remove that, and it drops from "#1 all-time" to mid-tier.
🌟
Hidden gem: Cr-219 — Dana Perino creative with a 29.92¢ total yield and 75.12¢ on Client Donors. Only 3.60¢ at D10 (small sample of 9,452 sends), but $5,801 from Client Donors alone on just 7,722 sends. This creative found its audience in warm donors — a signal to increase Client Donor send volume with similar copy.
04 — VOICE = REVENUE
Dana Perino Is 80% of the Money.
DB Donor revenue by celebrity voice. The concentration risk is extraordinary — and the cliff when you remove celebrity anchor is a sheer drop to near-zero.
DB Donor Revenue by Voice (Tier 1 Only)
$184,602 of $232,156 total DB revenue comes from one person.
Dana Perino
$184,602
9.48¢
Martha MacCallum
$37,777
6.84¢
No Celebrity
$4,962
1.23¢
Dana + Martha
$4,166
5.22¢
Chris Meek
$649
1.03¢
📉 The Celebrity Cliff
What happens when you remove celebrity voice entirely.
🔬 The Forensic Finding
From creative forensics — what expands and what dies.
0
Non-celebrity creatives that ever expanded past 5 polls. Zero. Out of 63 tested.
19
of 21 expanded creatives used Dana Perino or Martha MacCallum.
7.7x
Dana Perino yield vs No Celebrity (9.48¢ vs 1.23¢). The gap is a chasm.
⚠️
Concentration risk: If Dana Perino stops endorsing SoldierStrong, 80% of DB Donor revenue evaporates overnight. Diversifying the voice roster isn't optional — it's existential.
05 — THE DECLINE
17.40¢ → 2.68¢. Four Years. One Direction.
DB Donor yield has fallen 85% since 2022. These are clean, tier-separated numbers — no external inflation. The decline is real.
17.40¢
2022
9.94¢
2023
6.57¢
2024
2.68¢
2025
0.58¢
2026*
📊 Year-over-Year Detail (DB Donors Only)
Year
Polls
Sends
Revenue
Yield
ROI
2022
21
171K
$29,771
17.40¢
6.9x
2023
131
1.17M
$116,768
9.94¢
3.5x
2024
161
1.01M
$66,326
6.57¢
2.1x
2025
133
661K
$17,689
2.68¢
0.2x
2026*
2
9K
$55
0.58¢
-0.7x
* 2026 is 2 polls only (January). Too early for trend conclusions.
🔍 What's Causing the Decline?
Creative Fatigue
The same Dana Perino templates have been running for 4 years. Cr-34/34b (Thanksgiving) has 30+ polls. Cr-25 (4th of July) has 26. The list has seen every variation.
List Exhaustion
5.46% unsubscribe rate on DB Donors. Over 3M+ sends, the list is naturally depleting its most responsive names.
SMS is Dead Weight
SMS yields -0.52¢ net (negative ROI of -0.4x). Every SMS send literally loses money. MMS at 5.72¢ net is the only viable format.
The Signal in the Noise
2025 CTR actually increased to 5.18% (vs 3.34% in 2024). People are clicking more but donating less — the creative is getting opens but failing to convert. Fresh copy is the lever.
54 polls vs 454 for DB Donors. Client Donors deliver 22.12¢/send — nearly 3x the DB Donor yield — with only 2.01% unsub rate. This is the single biggest growth lever in the program.
2.9x
Yield Premium over DB Donors
22.12¢ vs 7.62¢ per send
9.9x
Return on Investment
vs 2.5x for DB Donors
54
Polls (Client)
454
Polls (DB Donors)
8.4x
Utilization Gap
🏆 Top Client Donor Performers
The creatives that crush it with warm donors — ordered by yield.
Creative
Voice
Sends
Revenue
Yield
ROI
Cr-25
Dana Perino
818
$1,986
242.78¢
109.4x
Cr-34
Dana Perino
1,314
$2,167
164.92¢
74.0x
Cr-141
Martha MacCallum
513
$475
92.59¢
41.1x
Cr-219
Dana Perino
7,722
$5,801
75.12¢
33.1x
Cr-13
Dana Perino
4,857
$2,342
48.22¢
20.9x
The pattern: The same creatives that win on DB Donors (Cr-25, Cr-34, Cr-13) absolutely dominate on Client Donors — just at dramatically higher yields. This isn't a different creative strategy — it's the same winners, sent to a warmer audience.
📐 The Revenue Math
What happens if you simply increase Client Donor send volume to match DB Donor utilization.
135K
Current annual Client Donor sends
→
400K+
Potential sends at proportional utilization
×
22.12¢
Current Client Donor yield (assumes some decay with volume)
=
$88K+
Potential annual Client Donor revenue (vs current $30K)
07 — THE FRAMEWORK
Apply This to Every Client.
SoldierStrong is the case study. The three-tier framework is the universal tool. Every DonorBureau client program should be analyzed through this lens before any creative or strategic decisions are made.
1
Separate the Tiers
DB Donors (Tier 1), Client Donors, External Vendors. Never analyze them together. Different data sources = different conclusions.
2
Exclude CPA Sends
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) sends are name-buying, not fundraising. Filter Acquisitions > 0 from all donation analysis.
3
Score on Tier 1
Creative quality decisions use DB Donor data ONLY. External revenue inflates. Client Donors inflate differently. Tier 1 is the truth.
4
Track the Cascade
D10 → D9 → D8 → Responders → External. A creative that maintains yield through cascade stages is genuinely strong. One that spikes only at D10 may be fragile.
🔄 What Changes With Clean Data
Side-by-side: the conclusions from raw vs segmented analysis.
Question
Raw Data Says
Clean Data Says
Best creative?
Cr-138 ($0.221)
Cr-19b (19.94¢ DB), Cr-13 (18.02¢ DB)
Program yield?
$0.114/send
7.62¢/send (DB Donors)
Do emojis work?
Yes, +13% lift
Negligible. Coincidental with holiday creative.
Best send day?
Saturday (2x)
Saturday modestly better (+28%), not transformative
MMS vs SMS?
MMS 4.8x better
MMS 11.6x better (SMS is negative ROI)
Growth lever?
More sends, more revenue
Client Donors at 22.12¢ — 54 polls vs 454. Scale the warm audience.
● DonorBureau Standard
The Three-Tier Framework Is Now Standard Operating Procedure.
Every client analysis. Every creative scorecard. Every program review. Separate the tiers before you draw any conclusions.