Creative

We'd like to introduce SOFII to those of our readers who don't know about it and share some of the fundraising efforts that have made it into the site's Best of the Best Showcase.

We found eight distinct cases of hemispheric flip in direct-mail fundraising. Hemispheric flip is when the sides of the brain are incorrectly deployed: What should be rational decisions are made emotionally ... and vice versa.

The only voice we should be concerned about in our direct-mail fundraising is the voice that works — the voice that raises the most money. And the great thing about fundraising is that we can test one letter versus another, one style or voice against something very different, to find what works best.

Here are three of the main ways marketing was turned on its head in 2010, and what that means for fundraisers.

At a time when people are tweeting, blogging, e-mailing and more 24/7, the best way to genuinely connect and create change is via truly human, in-person presentations. To help you get started creating presentations that really stick with your audiences, here are a few tips on how you can incorporate repeatable sound bites.

There are still several common mistakes fundraisers make in their online communications, says Thomas Gensemer, managing partner at online technology provider Blue State Digital. Here, he shares those common online fundraising mistakes and provides ways fundraisers can overcome them.

Start your donor relationships off right with prompt, polite thank-you notes, and start lighting the fire for your end-of-year appeals today.

Is the creative well a bit dry? Here are some ideas to boost your fall fundraising efforts.

A complete list of the 2010 FundRaising Success Gold Awards winners.

It was a big year for the Gold Awards, folks! 2010 marked the year with the largest number of entries to date. All told, the 108 submissions represented 15 nonprofit organizations and 30 agencies. We're thrilled, and want to say congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who participated.