Focus On: E-philanthropy: Upping Your E-appeal

News-event capitalization
“The immediacy of e-mail is its greatest asset to fundraisers,” asserts consultant Karen Gedney, of Karen Gedney Communications Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y. “You can respond immediately to news events with an e-appeal.”

Gedney has done copywriting for some recent e-mail campaigns for the International Fund for Animal Welfare and recounts how two news-based appeals “got a great response.” In the first case, an e-mail was tied to hit just when a story about the relocation of 24 Bengal tigers in New Jersey made national news. In the second case, Gedney says, “We sent an e-appeal right after The New York Times ran a front-page story on the cruelty of the Canadian harp seal hunt. You could never do this before with direct mail — by the time the donor received your package, it would be old news.”