And the Winners Are …
Grueling is the word that crossed the lips of the intrepid judges for our 2006 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence as they made their way out of our offices one hot afternoon in August. Not that we’re particularly demanding...
Helping Your High-dollar Donors to Stand Out
The wonders of online marketing give nonprofits the ability to reach out to millions of potential donors. But organizations seeking major and planned gifts often struggle with prioritizing the large amounts of data that result. It’s no great surprise that,...
What Matters Most
I remember the first direct-mail appeal letter I ever wrote. It was 1978. A massive flood had ravaged a village in the lowlands of Bangladesh, and I was assigned to write an appeal to current donors. Twenty-eight years —...
Engage, Then Ask
Women have access to more wealth today than ever before — whether it be earned, married into or inherited. Nonprofit organizations that focus on engaging women donors have more opportunities to broaden their donor bases; to build strong, long-term support;...
Stealing Savvy (Green Tights Optional)
You might not be a swashbuckling outlaw with green tights and a band of merry men, but read the book “Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes,” and you’ll feel like the lord of Loxley pilfering...
Rebranding With Grace
Lutheran Social Services of Mid-America had a problem: Its name confused people. The Ohio-based organization works with people of all faiths, not just Lutherans, offering services from credit counseling to senior-living facilities. The “mid-America” was unclear, too. What to...
Tough but Fun
First, my sincere apologies to the intrepid folks who judged the 2006 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence. I knew it would be tough. I warned them … I did! But no one expected it to take as long as...
Donors in Training
Founded in 1949, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to curing leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and to improving the quality of life of patients and their families....
Donor Complaints: Listen and Learn
No one wants to listen to complaints every day. Whether the complainer is a spouse (“Put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher!”), one of your kids (“Why can’t you take me to the mall?”) or a donor (“Stop sending...
Talking Back
Letters to the Editor and other opinions/tips....
A Bloomin' Success
Flowerpetal.com, an online storefront that sells floral arrangements and gifts, is offering nonprofit organizations a service through which it will build them online storefronts that allow them to keep a portion of the proceeds from flower sales. ...
Crash Course
The growth in recent years of online contributions to disaster-relief organizations clearly illustrates that Web fundraising has come of age. Consider the online giving that the American Red Cross has generated following major disasters: $64 million related to the Sept....
An Unkind Cut?
Alley Cat Allies is a Bethesda, Md.-based national clearinghouse for information on feral and stray cats devoted to reducing the number of domestic and feral cats through nonlethal methods. The organization publishes a quarterly newsletter, AlleyCatAction, that showcases groups and...
Mutual Trust Is a Must
Every day we hear about the lack of trust between nations, between citizens and their governments, between employees and customers, customers and corporations, and between individuals. Advances in technology have aggravated the problem by making it easy for individuals and...
List Look
Following is a sampling of lists available to reach alternative-medicine advocates as potential donors....
