Talking Back: Fundraising Challenges 2005

Kelly Mahoney, president of direct-response fundraising firm Newport Creative Communications, Duxbury, Mass.: “Nonprofit executives will be faced with the challenge of doing more with less in 2005. Generating more donors, more revenues, a better cost-per-dollar-raised and other success metrics — while keeping expenses and resources to a reasonable level — will be all-consuming. ... Given some of the recent USPS proposals that could mandate First Class postage for nonprofit mailings that combine both fundraising and educational messages, now is a good time to test other ways of reaching both donors and prospects. Diversify beyond direct mail in anticipation of future changes in postal and regulatory environments. ... Optimize your program by allocating a percentage of your resources to testing each quarter. Testing strategies should revolve around those variables that make the most impact on your bottom line. Efforts should focus on driving wholesale change in an effort to significantly boost revenues and the number of sustainable donors.”