A Realistic Look at Annual Funds

Last issue we traced a troubling history of a young industry — mass solicitation of philanthropic support. It seems that technology has been a mixed blessing covering a wider and wider territory more and more thinly. We recounted the successive rise and decline of volunteer-based solicitation, direct mail and telemarketing. No one in annual giving, especially those in smaller, more regional institutions, is comfortable with the direction this history seems to be going.