A Blast From the Past: Getting to the Heart of the Donor (October 2010)

FundRaising Success published its first issue in November 2003, making this our 10th-anniversary year. To celebrate, we've been taking a look back at some of the features, columns and other editorial content from the past decade.

There's much debate underway regarding the effectiveness of traditional fundraising sources. We're hearing a lot about social media, the importance of websites, emerging technologies and the transitioning of direct mail to electronic media.

In response to the rising crescendo of uncertainty, the Heart of the Donor™ research took a comprehensive look at donor behavior. For the purposes of this article, we will look at how donors are giving.

It's important to acknowledge up front that while the channels donors use to give are driven by their comfort and preference, it is equally true that they are also driven by the channels made available to them by the organizations they support. Recognizing that reality, we evaluated 10 different methods of giving, asking donors whether they have used each one in the past 12 months. First, let's look at the raw numbers.

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