Geared Up for Growth
AM: Continuing along that line of best practices … how do we do the things that we’ve always done, which we know work, but do them the best possible way?
Marc Pitman: … One of the things that we really get sidetracked by is the flashy, shiny object; it’s usually a social-media thing that fared poorly. You know, Flickr or something else that’s missing letters. But for really serious fundraisers, direct mail is still a must. I gave a social-media pre-conference for another conference yesterday and we were going through all the different types of social media, but [attendees] kept saying, “How do we get gifts online?” I said, “Well, you send them a letter.” What we want to be able to do is show flashy, new things to our board and our boss, but really successful fundraising is kind of boring. It’s executing a plan. It’s calling the donors and writing them a letter, and drafting it, and using the best practices.
