Since ancient times, we have been reminded that a true friend is loyal to us. Aristotle wrote, “A friend to all is a friend to none,” and Euripides said, “One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.” Or, in the terms of today’s fundraisers, “One loyal donor is worth 10,000 fans, likes or followers whose engagement never goes further than that."
The New York-based National Children's Leukemia Foundation appealed to donors across the country, promising lifesaving services, such as locating bone marrow donors, conducting cancer research and even claiming to run a program called "Make a Dream Come True" to fulfill the last wishes of dying cancer-stricken children. The New York attorney general's office said the…
Trick-or-treating with a UNICEF box was like being a Thalidomide baby at the local pinball arcade … on “Kids Play Free” night. That thing was Halloween kryptonite, a cardboard candy-repellent that practically screamed, “Stop! Do not give this boy any candy. Stick a penny in me instead.” Worse, we had no idea what UNICEF was…
These days, partnerships between charities and for-profit companies go beyond writing a check (although that’s still a useful part of the relationship). Nonprofits are tapping into the resources available from successful companies in all sorts of ways. It turns out, many of these companies are eager to help. Here are some different ways that nonprofits…
Twenty-five years ago, Teach For America was just Wendy Kopp’s undergraduate project. Today, it is a pillar of the effort to radically change American education with a huge national footprint. From 384 corps members touching the lives of 20,000 public school students in 1990, it has grown to 10,471 corps members teaching 600,000 students in…
If your job is in peer-to-peer fundraising, you are in the movement business. Movements are made of humans moving, and while there is no instruction manual for this complex beast, there are some clues about human behavior that can help you get your movement moving.
The topic of standing out may not easily jump to mind but is important. In Indiana alone, there are more than 35,000 nonprofits seeking funds on a daily basis. That is a lot of competition to deal with in the arena of annual, major, planned and capital campaigns.
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards delivered a stern reply on Thursday to a controversial undercover video that purports to show the reproductive health organization profits from selling tissue from aborted fetuses. In her video response posted to YouTube, Richards said the “heavily edited” footage was intended to make “outrageous claims” about the nonprofit’s programs to…
The Oregon Department of Justice has filed an unusual state bar complaint against prominent Republican activist Kevin Mannix, charging that the lawyer violated ethics rules when he represented a veterans charity that funneled $1.1 million to his political and business activities. The bar complaint says that Mannix, the 2002 GOP nominee for governor and a…
At last week’s Bridge conference, I was struck (again) by the many choices facing today’s fundraiser. Having a robust direct mail program and major gifts program, with a little planned giving and maybe an event tossed in, is no longer enough. Now, we need a website that is informative and optimized for mobile, and that has a user-friendly donation page. We have to frequently update our Facebook page and post a steady flow of videos on YouTube...
