Tips for Keeping Fundraising Vibrant and Exciting

Keeping tasks fresh and exciting can be a struggle no matter what job you do.

Here, stars of the fundraising sector and winners of FundRaising Success’ 2007 Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards share how they keep fundraising new and exciting.

How do you keep fundraising fresh?

Michael Knipp, chief copywriter/editor for Creative Direct Response, Rising Star: By always pushing myself to be innovative. There’s no point in getting up for work every day if I’m not proud of what I’m putting my name on.

Kim Ruotsala, director of development for Food Bank of the Rockies, Top Women in Fundraising: You can’t rely on what worked in the past to work in the future, so the entire development staff is constantly reading fundraising publications, attending workshops and seminars as well as good, old-fashioned brainstorming sessions to keep up with the changing times.

Tim Burgess, co-founder of Merkle/Domain, Top Men in Fundraising: Learning from my successes and failures.

Ted Kohnen, assistant director of Planned Parenthood Online, Rising Stars: 1) We keep fundraising fresh by constantly learning how we can use new technology to reach supporters that we would not reach by traditional methods. 2) By being constantly aware of what is happening in society so that we can communicate compelling stories to our supporters.

Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing for Network for Good, Fundraising Professional of the Year: I keep it fresh by listening to the donors. They are smarter than I am and usually more eloquent. The reasons they support an organization — the words they use, the stories they tell, the passion they have — makes them the best possible source of inspiration for fundraising. Our new site, www.sixdegrees.org [a social networking site where visitors can learn about and support the charities of celebrities and their friends, and fundraise for causes they care about], is full of such stories. Donors tend to be the best messengers, which is why I’m so keen on person-to-person fundraising.