An Interview With Emelie Irving, Executive Director, Southeast Texas Food Bank

Finally, even in light of all of the eye-opening lessons Irving and her board have learned in their journey to becoming a direct-mail fundraising powerhouse, the most important one echoes the most basic advice any nonprofit needs to know:

"If you don't ask people," she said, "they won't give. But if you ask them, they will. It's been very humbling for me to see all the people that want to help. We didn't even know they were out there."