An online petition in 2003 pushed the Human Rights Campaign into the world of online fund- and friendraising. And the organization never looked back.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“We’ll continue to take advantage of these things that come out,” she adds. “We don’t know what the next opportunity will be, but we’re going to make the most of it when it shows its face.”

Even though the area of GLBT advocacy is rife with opportunities to rally the public, HRC’s success is about much more than just well-leveraged serendipity. In fact, whether you’re talking about direct-response marketing, street canvassing, monthly giving conversions or the all-important channel integration equation, if there’s something that a cutting-edge nonprofit should be doing, then HRC probably is doing it, and doing it really, really well.