#TBTFundraising: Rekindle Your Direct-Mail Fundraising Passion

By Ellen Cobb Church

O’Dell would sit at her desk at Craver, Mathews, Smith & Co. with her framed ERA memorabilia and photos of her beloved West Virginia on the walls and pound out some of the best fundraising packages to hit the mailstream. Her passion for the causes and her way with prose could cause the reader to get angry (with righteous anger!), take action, and make a donation to causes that ranged from gun control to abortion rights to constitutional rights and human dignity. I miss her — reading her packages makes her come alive again. She believed everything she wrote, and you could feel that when you read her words.