NEWTON, Mass., May 29, 2009 — TripAdvisor(R), the world's most popular and largest travel community, has won a gold Halo Award, American cause marketing's highest honor. TripAdvisor won the "Best Use of Social Media" category for their fall 2008 "More than Footprints(TM)" campaign which distributed $1 million dollars between five travel-related non-profit organizations, including: Conservation International; Doctors without Borders; National Geographic Society; Save the Children; and The Nature Conservancy. Run by the Cause Marketing Forum, Halos recognize work that advances the interests of both nonprofit partners and a business, and are judged on conceptual strength, execution, business results, and cause results. The honors were announced in a May 28 ceremony at the Cause Marketing Forum's annual conference in Chicago.
Doctors Without Borders
People who go online to donate to charity for the first time often do not return to the Internet to make later gifts, according to a new study examining the experience of 24 nonprofit groups.
CREDO (www.credomobile.com), the mobile and long distance phone service brought to you by corporate-responsibility leader Working Assets, has announced a multimillion-dollar cash injection for nonprofit groups working to improve the lives of people around the world.
The FundRaising Success webinar, "Finding New Funding Options in Tough Economic Times," last week featured an all-star cast of fundraising mavens who presented strategies, tips and tangible examples for nonprofits looking to not just survive but also thrive during the current economic downturn.
A less than stellar charity rating … getting blasted in a blog … or, maybe, a CEO that gets caught in a scandal. Any of these situations are bound to leave an organization’s phones ringing with calls from confused, frustrated or even angry donors. How does an organization relax those donors, calm their fears and address their concerns? Start with common sense. This according to Kim Daley, donor services assistant for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres USA, a co-presenter of the session “Managing Donor Anger: Turning the Tide in Your Favor” at the 2008 New York Nonprofit Conference earlier this month. “Be a
In the session “Protecting Your Brand” at last week’s 2008 New York Nonprofit Conference, speakers addressed the various ways nonprofit brands can become diluted or even tainted as organizations find more and innovative ways to bring in donor dollars. Jennifer Tierney, development director for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres USA, addressed, among other topics, third-party fundraisers, where groups of well-intentioned (one would hope) supporters hold independent events and then funnel part or all of the proceeds to the organization. Such events, Tierney said, can be good in that they could result in exposure and funds with little effort or resources put forth by
Wow! Who ever thought the Gold Awards could be so exciting? The sun was setting on judgement day, and we had a tie for Package of the Year. A first! So, I polled our four judges — Steve Froehlich, director of development analytics at the ASPCA; Tim O’Leary, vice president of McPherson Associates; Paul Bobnak, director of North American Publishing Co.’s Who’s Mailing What! Archive; and FS Senior Editor Abny Santicola. After some soul searching and spirited debate, they weighed in: two for one package and the other two for the other package.
Last week I focused on a powerful six-panel glossy pamphlet in a mailing from Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This week, it’s all about a six-page 8.25-inch-by-10.75-inch brochure in a Doctors Without Borders mailing. The brochure, like the PPFA pamphlet, is compelling in its combination of arresting design elements and text. In this case, the design elements are the colors used in the brochure — deep black and red — and black-and-white photographs. Headlines like “Saving Lives” and “Commitment: Answering the Call” in reverse type (white) literally jump off the page. Like the PPFA pamphlet, this brochure does a great job of putting the organization’s
When it comes to direct-mail appeals from Doctors Without Borders/Medecines Sans Frontieres, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one lacking a sense of urgency. As an international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by conflicts, epidemics and disasters, MSF writes urgency into everything it does — and it’s in the mail a lot asking for donor support. Still, the sense of urgency doesn’t get old or lose its effect because it’s real. For the most part, the organization’s mailings are relatively sparse, and the letters often use a typewriter font, making them feel as though they were hurriedly typed from the
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.
