5-Minute Interview: Howard Baskin, chairman, Big Cat rescue

FS: Any major difficulties or setbacks you’ve faced along the way? Things you would do differently with your fundraising?

HB: One year at the Fur Ball we made a poor decision on meal choice at the ball and got complaints. Learned a lesson, and since then the meal has gotten rave reviews.

We dabbled in direct mail briefly. But even though we had great success in terms of return on the small mailings we did, for the reasons above we decided not to expand the program.