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American Society for Yad
Vashem. "They are able to
get to many people that your
average two-person office
can't reach."
From the Jewish Institute
for National Security Af-
fairs, a think tank in Wash-
ington, Executive Director
Shoshana Bryen is trying to
educate the community
about U.S. defense policy
and its relationship to the
security of Israel.
Seven years ago, the
organization's membership
was 5,000. At the referral of
a friend, Ms. Bryen hired
A.B. Data to launch a direct
mail campaign.
Membership has jumped to
15,000 since she hired A.B.
Data.
"It works," Ms. Bryen
says. "They have the
greatest number of Jewish
lists and somehow have the
ability to pick the lists that
work. They have provided
me with lists of people I
wouldn't think of. They have
a pretty good fix on what
JINSA should mail.
"In theory, direct mail
ought not to work," Ms.
Bryen says. "People should
not respond to letters. But
they do. These people know
it. And they are good at it."
A.B. Data staffers have
mailed out creative, yet
sometimes shocking, fund-
raising pitches. Officials
from the agencies, who
declined to release fund-
raising figures, say A.B.
Data's techniques have
worked.
For JINSA, A.B. Data sent
out a letter and an opinion
piece from the Washington
Post saying Palestine Lib-
eration Organization Chief
Yassir Arafat was still talk-
ing like a terrorist. It was
mailed in a black envelope,
with a photo of Mr. Arafat
and large red letters stating
"Trust me" printed above
the address window.
For Yad Vashem; A.B.
Data sent out a yellow arm
band bearing the Magen
David Jews were forced to
wear during the Holocaust.
For the Jerusalem Foun-
dation, the company mailed
an imitation air mail
envelope, stuffed with a
letter from Jerusalem Mayor
Teddy Kollek.
For Sen. Levin, it devised
the 1984 Keep a Mensch in
the Senate campaign. Actor
Theodore Bikel provided his
name for the fund-raising
letter. And for Sen. Paul
Simon (D-Ill.), the company
devised a red victory bow tie.
The massive data base is
the company's organiza-
tional tool. From it comes in-
formation about givers and
prospective donors.
"We would like to find
everybody, but we never
will," Mr. Benjamin says.
"We can get better.
"How we get better is not
by knowing where they are
and where they live, but
knowing their interests. Are
they interested in the arts,
mainstream causes like
UJA, or are they more likely
to be members of the Ameri-
can Jewish Congress or the
Anti-Defamation League. Or
will they give money to the
National Jewish Heritage
Museum?"
Though it could be done,
no one ever has sent out a
mailing at one time to all the
Jewish households. Cost to
mail a non-personalized,
standard campaign letter to
the entire base in a plain
envelope would cost
$600,000, Mr. Benjamin
says. "It is not realistic for
our fund-raising purposes.
"When we go marketing
for clients, we take all of
these lists and study them,"
Mr. Benjamin says. "We fig-_
ure out how to intelligently
take a slice of the Jewish
community and make those
lists work. Then we test it
and mail it to a sample."
Included in the data are an
estimated 10 million cita-
tions, used for identifying
groups. In concept, a list
could be made of all the peo-
ple who read Lilith, gave
money to Sen. Jesse
Helms' North Carolina op-
ponent and donated to
groups raising money for
Soviet Jewry.
"Chances are, there is
something we know about
you," Mr. Arbit says. "But
the data is not used for
anything but lists.
"If you want to offer a
seminar on Jewish edu-
cation, I'll get you a list of
Jewish teachers and pro-
fessors," Mr. Arbit explains.
"I can tell you this week how
any group in the data base
will respond to something.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
53
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