5-Minute Interview With Matthew Bregman of El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969 by a group of Puerto Rican educators, artists, parents and community activists in East Harlem’s Spanish-speaking El Barrio. Today, it’s a leading Latino cultural institution dedicated to representing the diversity of art...
One Good Idea: Overnight Sensations
If you’re a nonprofit fundraiser, you could have your wildest dreams come true. Well, at least your wildest marketing concepts. For free. CreateAthon is an annual, 24-hour creative blitz in which ad agencies and design firms across the nation work...
Net Gain: Not Fade Away
Trends, by definition, come and go. Some are worth more time and money than others, and some can be just another … well … trend. Fundraisers don’t have the time or money to spend on just another trend —...
Ewwww! What’s That Smell?
I have never outgrown eighth grade. I still enjoy slapstick comedy — watching “Scrubs” and “Home Alone” makes me laugh out loud. Any bodily function that makes noise — whether it be burps or farts (or any armpit re-creation of...
Mission Focus: Reproductive Rights Issues
According to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Web site, approximately 750,000 U.S. teens will become pregnant this year, and nearly 4 million will contract a sexually transmitted infection — in part because they don’t have access to the information...
DM Diagnosis: What’s New?
After a brainstorming session one day, the Yoda of direct-response fundraising and I were mulling over ideas the group had generated. “You know,” Yoda said, “there really are no new offers anymore. It was easier to be brilliant before everybody...
Easier Said Than Done: Death by Committee
Whoever said a camel is a horse designed by a committee gave committees too much credit. If a committee tried to design a horse, it wouldn’t end up with a strong, useful, if inelegant, animal. It would produce a mound...
Conference Time
This month, I head to the DMA Nonprofit Federation Leadership Summit in Coral Gables, Fla. I’ve attended the past two years, and each time I’ve been reminded of what invaluable opportunities these conferences can offer — to learn, network...
Focus On: Grants
“You only get one chance to make a first impression.” It’s important to remember that when you submit a grant proposal. The proposal frequently is an agency’s first contact with a potential funder, so a lot rides on your...
Star Power
Sarah Jessica Parker, Ray Romano, Robin Williams, Antonio Banderas — celebs so diverse you might be hard pressed to find a common link. But add the name Marlo Thomas, and most people would immediately recall that all of these...
Case Study: A Different Kind of Outreach
Can an 85-year-old Roman Catholic human-services organization reach out beyond its traditional donor base without compromising its strong spiritual identity? The answer is a resounding “yes,” according to a successful series of fundraising mailings for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen...
Planned Giving: Too Much Information?
No area of fundraising intertwines development staff and donors in more personal relationships than planned giving. In many cases, all a prospective donor asks is that a development executive supply generic information about how a particular gift plan might...
