Are Your Online and Offline Efforts in Sync?

If your organization is like many, you've been living with an unusual compromise for a few years. It works something like this:

• The fundraising or development department is in charge of direct mail.
• The marketing department is in charge of the website.
• The two areas have almost nothing in common.
• This minimizes conflict and pain.

Direct mail is managed by measurable objectives. This makes it relentlessly donor-centric. That means old-fashioned, simplistic and emphatic. It stomps all over the brand guidelines with field-tested abandon. These qualities cause it to be disliked by many people in the organization, but it brings in the money so they mostly let it be.