A stagnant annual-giving program prompted changes to how City of Hope approaches donor cultivation and acquisition that, in many ways, defy conventional fundraising wisdom.

By Abny Santicola

What the annual-giving department needed to do, Merkle advised, was mail even more. Keim says she thought the agency was crazy. Having spent 10 years as a development professional in higher education — where she mailed four, at most five, appeals a year — she was inclined to think the 11 mailings might already be exhausting donors.