Trade Associations/Trade Shows

Something disturbing happened at the 2006 DMA Annual Washington Nonprofit Conference in February. It occurred at the beginning of the question-and-answer phase of a panel discussion titled “How to Beat a Long-Standing Control.” According to accounts, a member of the audience stood up and harangued the DMA for allowing one of the participants — who works for the national office of Planned Parenthood — to be on the panel. He lectured the audience and the panel about the supposed evils of Planned Parenthood, and he upset many of those who attended. When he finished, another person stood up to offer a countering

Is your organization “pushing the envelope” with direct mail? Tell us about your most daring DM efforts.

FS Advisor -- April 4, 2006 Online auctions are becoming more popular and a preferred solution for nonprofit organizations looking to build their donor bases, engage donors, increase the frequency of giving and connect donors to a social giving network that transcends geography. This, according to Jon Carson, CEO of cMarket, Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of charitable online auction services, in his session Sunday at the 43rd AFP International Conference on Fundraising in Atlanta. Online auctions are successful because donors contribute more via the Web, and they cost less to run than their traditional counterparts. Auctions via the Web offer “a dynamic, interactive environment for

EVENT: DMFA Luncheon, Jan. 25, 2006, New York SPEAKERS: Tiffany Lacey, director of development, Animal Haven; and Lisa Maska, account executive, Lautman & Co.Lacey: Animal Haven raised more than $60,000 in Katrina relief funds from 325 donors (25 percent of whom were new) by combining good local media coverage with a series of e-mails, most…

E-philanthropy is the new kid on the block with the bright new sneakers. But while numbers from the 2005 Kintera/Luth Nonprofit Trend Report show online giving going full-steam ahead, there are still key points to keep in mind when it comes to maximizing users’ Web experience. This was the topic addressed by Michael Schreiber, executive vice president for enterprise service at the United Way of America in his session at Fund Raising Day New York in June.

“What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate” FS Advisor: July 19, 2005 By Margaret Battistelli, editor, FundRaising Success With apologies to Paul Newman’s character in “Cool Hand Luke,” that famous line could underscore the major deficiency that plagues many major-gifts appeals. In their AFP Fund Raising Day New York session, “Social Styles: Increasing Effective Personal Communications for Fundraising,” presenters Andrea Kihlstedt and Michael Page Miller stressed the importance of understanding the personality type of a potential major-gift donor before even attempting an ask. To simplify the task, consultants Kihlstedt and Miller educated attendees on the various social styles that fundraisers might encounter

Let me raise a glass to the good folks at the DMA Nonprofit Federation for their truly well done Leadership Summit in Denver last month. Being as it’s a workday, it’ll have to be iced tea, but champagne would be much more in keeping with the degree of kudos warranted.

The conference was attended by a smallish group of nonprofit professionals ranging from the heads of development at organizations of all sizes to the top dogs at some of the sector’s most respected agencies, consultancies and vendors.

Paul Pelletier was adamant. There are changes looming, and many are not good. The affable president of Direct Campaign Solutions bantered with the audience at his “Fundraising Legislation and Its Impact” session at AFP’s recent conference in Baltimore. Among the topics: Senate Finance Committee recommendations that would severely curtail gifts in kind; postal reforms that would make it financially burdensome to personalize your DM; and the push for more government-led accountability from nonprofits.

Simply put, people who are comfortable shopping and paying bills via the Internet are more likely to donate money online to your nonprofit organization, says Michael Johnston, president of Toronto-based nonprofit consultancy Hewitt and Johnston and author of “The Fund Raiser’s Guide to the Internet” and “The Nonprofit Guide to the Internet.”

Acquisition means bringing in new donors, as many as possible. But with donor-list universes shrinking and the cost of acquisition rising, fundraisers are left in quite a quandary.