Association of Fundraising Professionals

Looking for a group of donors who are optimistic in 2009 and planning to continue or increase their giving? Small business owners would be a good start, a study shows.

Today saw the global launch of bettertheworld.com, the world's first, effortless fundraising platform that provides tools to empower millions of people to raise money for charity simply by surfing the web. The platform targets internet users who have no money to give to charity and charity supporters who want to do more.

AFP member, experienced fundraiser, speaker and author, Gail Perry, CFRE, shares with eWire readers her thoughts on how to keep going productively in these bad economic times. She believes that without a positive outlook we cannot go forward to make the world a better place. Below is her "positive thinking" list for '09.

Click here to check out the results of The Agitator’s Vital Signs survey about fundraising expectations for the balance of 2008. Bridge Conference Call for Papers Deadline Extended Those who want to speak or sit on a panel at the 2009 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference this July have a little bit more time to submit their applications. The call for papers deadline has been extended to Dec. 1. Industry experts interested in lectures or panels that include case or industry studies on the current trends in production and graphics, analyses of giving, audience buying, or donor demographics and behaviors are

News From the Bridge Conference, Oct. 6 (Washington, D.C.) Plans are now under way for the fourth annual Bridge Conference, and the educational teams are starting now to recruit speakers and panels. The conference will once again be co-hosted by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington and the Washington D.C. Metro Area Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and sessions will support the educational missions unique to and shared by each group. Dynamic presenters wanted! If you’re willing to share your expertise next summer as a speaker or panelist, please let the conference planners know. We’re interested in lectures or panels that

News From the Bridge Conference, Oct. 6 (Washington, D.C.) Plans are now under way for the fourth annual Bridge Conference, and the educational teams are starting now to recruit speakers and panels. The conference will once again be co-hosted by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington and the Washington D.C. Metro Area Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and sessions will support the educational missions unique to and shared by each group. Dynamic presenters wanted! If you’re willing to share your expertise next summer as a speaker or panelist, please let the conference planners know. We’re interested in lectures or panels that

If you’re a nonprofit fundraiser in South Jersey, you’ll be happy to know that you’ll soon be getting your very own chapter of the AFP. Interested professionals can attend the Exploratory Membership Meeting of the new Southern New Jersey Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals at 3 p.m. on June 6 at the Noyes Museum of Art, 733 Lily Lake Rd., in Oceanville, NJ. But you have to RSVP by June 4. (That’s tomorrow, folks!) The meeting will include information on the AFP, the new chapter and how current AFP members can transfer their existing memberships to the new chapter. For additional information,

Since day one, I’ve held that those of us who are responsible for putting out FundRaising Success learn more from our readers than our readers learn from us. And this year’s Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards have served to punctuate that belief. Each year, we send out nominating forms that are nice and neat, with perfectly balanced categories that cover what we think are all the bases. And each year, we name winners in those respective categories. But this year, the nominations weren’t so cut and dry, and we were reminded that there are thousands of fundraising pros out there who toil in

There’s a powerful, woefully underused fundraising wea-pon that should be in every copywriter’s and art director’s arsenal. It can help you target your creative more effectively, have a better feel for your prospects and, in all likelihood, do a much better job of motivating them to make a gift. This powerful tool is so simple I can name it for you in just one word: datacard. If you’re not familiar with them, datacards are the one- or two-page crib sheets your account executive and list broker use to determine which lists to test. After the testing phase, lists that have proven effective

Ethical issues seldom announce themselves in advance. If they did, they would be easy to avoid. Often, unethical seeds arrive quietly and lie dormant until they erupt into an organizational or career-damaging quagmire. As Association of Fundraising Professionals President and CEO Paulette Maehara has said, “Most ethical violations come about from omission rather than commission. People get into ethical trouble because they fail to pay enough attention to the ethical implications of familiar activities.” Whether you are a fundraising newcomer or an old hand, here are 10 simple reminders to help keep your fundraising career out of ethical hot water. 1. Put your