That's the Spirit!

I love this quote by Amanda Seller, director of international fundraising at the UN Refugee Agency, who spoke during the session, "Beyond Crisis: How Haiti Changed Everything" at the 2010 Bridge Conference held last month in National Harbor, Md. "We were sending out news as we were figuring out our plan — we were getting contacted by our donors, major donors, multimillion-dollar donors who wanted to reach people affected by the Haiti earthquake now. In some cases, we recommended the donor give to another organization if we couldn’t immediately help — the most important thing is the relationship with donors.”

Not only does it represent smart donor-relationship cultivation (which can be extrapolated to mean smart fundraising), but it also perfectly represents the true spirit of this sector: doing good and helping others to do good, even if it doesn't always mean more money on "your" books.

Learm more about ways in which the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year changed fundraising in Senior Editor Joe Boland's Advisor feature.

FS Gold Awards
Well, the deadline has passed, and the entries are in the hands of the judges. This was our biggest year yet — with more than 100 entries from 15 nonprofit orgaizations and 30 fundraising consultancies. Tune in to the September issue of FS for the results of our 2010 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence. While you're waiting, you can look back over the winners from 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Peace & blessings!
Margaret Battistelli
Editor-in-Chief, FS