DMA Nonprofit Federation

Attendees at my two-day “Secrets of Copywriting” seminar at the DMA 2006 Annual Conference in San Francisco last week brought samples for a critique. And almost every sample from the fundraising sector — and virtually every appeal I receive — has the same problem. I mean that literally: They all look the same. And I’m not even talking about the free address labels and note cards. Please don’t think me callous when I say typically, there’s a lovable dog to save, a needy child to support, a desperate disease or disaster victim to rescue … along with formulaic copy such as: “We do important

Search engine optimization, blogs and RSS are all the rage these days for marketers. But how can they best be used? This was the topic addressed in the session “Blogs, Podcasts and RSS: New Tools for Customer Acquisition and CRM” at the Direct Marketing Association’s 2006 Annual Conference & Exhibition in San Francisco last week. Stephan Spencer, president and founder of New Zealand-based Web design and consulting company Netconcepts and a co-presenter of the session, says that these technologies can be used by for-profits and nonprofits alike. Blogs — which are basically Web sites made up of journal-like entries — can

So many of us struggle through our work days without ever knowing if what we do makes a difference. For nonprofit fundraisers, it’s pretty clear. If donations are healthy and donors are happy, then missions are being fulfilled and you can see the results of your hard work reflected in the number of people sheltered and fed, animals rescued, legislations enacted, symphonies performed, patients educated, diseases cured, etc.

First, my sincere apologies to the intrepid folks who judged the 2006 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence. I knew it would be tough. I warned them … I did! But no one expected it to take as long as it did or to be as demanding as it was.

For a good 10 hours, the four judges camped out at our offices here in Philadelphia and painstakingly studied and rated nearly 90 direct-mail packages, and multi-channel and Web-based campaigns. My job was to keep them fed and stay out of their way.

Grueling is the word that crossed the lips of the intrepid judges for our 2006 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence as they made their way out of our offices one hot afternoon in August.

Not that we’re particularly demanding taskmasters, but the competition was, indeed, fierce. Much to our glee, it grew from 33 packages in 2005 to nearly 90 this year (sent in by 21 agencies and four nonprofit organizations). Some of the categories remained the same, but we added a few and tweaked a few others.

In his session on telemarketing at the DMA Nonprofit Federation 2006 New York Nonprofit Conference, Nate Drushell, vice president of marketing at InfoCision Management Corp., sought to disprove common misconceptions regarding telefundraising — among them that the phone is an effective fundraising medium only for certain organizations or only for small sub-segments of a donor file, and that using the phone will cannibalize other fundraising programs. The phone can work as a fundraising medium for any type of organization, be it national or chapter based; can work across all segments of an organization’s donor file — high dollar and low dollar; and will

The temperature as I write this is 101 degrees. Is it any wonder, then, that summer is a time of general malaise and lethargy? (Unless, of course, you’re a kid hopped up on Kool-Aid, pool water and the sweet, sweet rush of school-break delirium).

But even though its editor is a hot-weather wuss, FundRaising Success — the magazine — refuses to fall prey to the summer doldrums. We’re changing … we’re growing, even as some of us are wilting.

The temperature as I write this is 101 degrees. Is it any wonder, then, that summer is a time of general malaise and lethargy? (Unless, of course, you’re a kid hopped up on Kool-Aid, pool water and the sweet, sweet rush of school-break delirium). But even though its editor is a hot-weather wuss, FundRaising Success — the magazine — refuses to fall prey to the summer doldrums. We’re changing … we’re growing, even as some of us are wilting. Associate Editor Abny Santicola has been promoted to senior editor as of Aug. 1.

When we put together our special section on e-philanthropy last year, the nonprofit world was rushing to gets its Web sites up, playing with the idea of “Donate Now” buttons and wondering why its e-mails were getting gobbled up by spam filters.

Lots of organizations still are figuring these things out. Many finally have embraced the wonders of database-management technology. And still others already are eyeing the fundraising possibilities of text messaging and other innovations.

For a few months now, you’ve been hearing about plans by companies such as AOL and Yahoo! to apply a new business model to Internet communications to afford e-mail senders a secure way to communicate with potential customers. Goodmail recently unveiled a certified e-mail program that AOL and Yahoo! plan to make available to e-mail senders that allows them to bypass spam filters for a fee and get guaranteed access to recipients’ inboxes.