Creative

Tis' the season when nonprofit organizations around the globe are busy planning their year-end direct-mail appeals. For small-shop fundraisers constrained by limited resources, getting out a direct-mail appeal on a budget can seem like an insurmountable task.

The Toy Industry Foundation's Jean Butler shares the key tactics her organizations utilizes to keep giving moment going beyond just the year-end giving season.

If you don't have the budget for the kind of wonderful research that is available now to raise the odds that a fundraising campaign launch will succeed, and you have to resort to depending heavily on your gut, what can you do to mitigate your risk?

You are simply not going to get your donors' attention with jargon and lame words and phrases. Keep trying. Don't waste the valuable real estate on your website or donation page. Make every single word count!

As you plan the last quarter of 2012 and look ahead to 2013’s fundraising calendar, here are some things to think about to improve your chances of “happily ever after.”

Potholes can lead our donors away from our message — and rob us of much-needed revenue. Try to avoid these three as you navigate your fall fundraising schedule.

I suppose we could argue for days about what is the worst abuse a nonprofit could heap upon its donors, and certainly ethical breeches would be right at the top. However, I contend that boring donors to death comes in slightly below that. It's not illegal — but it probably should be.

Relevance is the heart of memorable, motivating fundraising messages — "aha! messages." If your messages are irrelevant (more than seven of 10 nonprofits describe their messages as off target), your organization will fail to motivate the gifts and loyalty you need to move your mission forward.

As Walt Disney once said, "Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language." How's your grasp of that language?

Three fundraising professionals shared their "20 Big Ideas for Small Nonprofits" at the 2012 Washington Nonprofit Conference. Here are ideas 16-20.