Do You Just Love Me for My Money?
Donors are tired of receiving solicitation after solicitation merely asking for their financial support. If you want to succeed in the fundraising market today, then it is increasingly important to offer donors and potential donors an opportunity within your direct-marketing...
‘Fake Surveys Suck!’
‘Fake surveys suck!” This is a piece of comment mail I’ll never forget. Scrawled boldly across the survey in thick, black marker, the donor’s opinion of the organization’s effort to engage him couldn’t have been more succinct....
Hot … Or Not? My Predictions
I recently picked up an issue of a tabloid magazine and stumbled on a “What’s Hot/What’s Not” list. As I read it, I felt a little out of touch with Hollywood because I’d never heard of the people and trends....
Keeping the Party Purposeful
WITNESS is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based organization originally founded in 1992 as a project of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). It spun off in 2001 to become an independent 501(c)3 organization. WITNESS provides support — in...
OMG! comment me!
Web 2.0 tools and social technologies — blogs, social networks, widgets, videosharing and photosharing sites — all are cost-effective ways to build participation, sharing and collaboration into the core of what organizations do. But they’re different than traditional nonprofit efforts...
Going Forward
In his lifetime, actor Christopher Reeve was best known for his role as “Superman” on the silver screen. But he also was a real-life superhero to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, an organization he helped found after a horseback-riding...
‘You Can Make a Difference’
The homeless epidemic in the United States is not something most Americans like to talk about — especially since we live in one of the richest nations in the world. But the sad fact remains that anywhere from 700,000 to...
Cyber Chillin’
Well, we’ve got webinar No. 1 under our belts. I was a nervous wreck, even though my part was very small and, by virtue of the nature of webinars, I didn’t actually have to face anyone as I did it....
Bridge the Giving Gap
In most mid-size to large nonprofit organizations, there are two distinct areas from which revenue is generated from individual donors. The names vary: Membership hands off to development; direct marketing supports major gifts; marketing feeds donors to advancement. In each...
Yabba, Dabba … Don’t?
Every day we see between 1,500 and 3,000 advertisements. That’s upwards of 125 in-your-face fliers, billboards, commercials and print ads per hour — or 2.08 per minute. Which makes perfect sense considering the average American debt per credit-card carrying household...
Doing Good and Doing Well
From time to time, the worlds of charitable and private enterprise join forces to create financial strategies that result in success for all parties. You can find one such example in the formation of Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs). Besides the...
