Hundreds of nonprofit groups in Massachusetts received nearly $4.1 million from the Verizon Foundation in 2008, enabling the organizations to improve literacy skills, create new and diverse approaches to technology-based education, and help domestic violence victims rebuild their lives.
Is your organization considering setting up a profile on a social-networking site? Are you wondering what tasks are involved, how much time it will take, and how you might streamline your efforts? Maybe your organization has established a presence on MySpace and is now contemplating adding one to Facebook. Perhaps you’re wondering how you can juggle multiple profiles and still have time left to do other work. As more and more organizations jump on the social-networking bandwagon, people are seeking ways to make the time spent on these tools as efficient and fruitful as possible. I recently surveyed several nonprofit professionals and social-networking mavens
The second time I received multiple affinity credit card offers on the same day, I started paying attention. At first glance, with the exception of the nonprofit logos on the corner card of each outer envelope, they seem identical. All shout the 0 percent fixed introductory APR until 2009 — but smaller, thinner type qualifies what month the offer ends and that it’s only for cash advance checks and balance transfers. All but one have a personalized teaser letting me specifically know that this particular card is “The most rewarding card of all®.”
Easter Seals. Everybody knows what it does, right? After all, it’s been around almost 90 years, and it has an instantly recognizable brand that’s been valued at upward of $5 billion.
But rewind to 2004, when the much-loved Chicago-based organization had just wrapped up a research project it embarked on to create a public service announcement campaign.
Increasing Long-Term Value of Premium Donors Oct. 4, 2005 By Jennifer Bielat The use of premiums to acquire new donors and to cultivate and renew existing donors continues to be a proven technique in the nonprofit sector. Based on research done by several list-brokerage firms, mail trends indicate nearly two-thirds of fundraising mail contains premiums. A premium in a mailing typically drives a higher response rate and lower average gift. As a result, premiums attract a significant number of lower-dollar donors, which can be difficult for organizations to renew and upgrade. Although the average gift for premium mailings is on the rise, the
Once upon a time, instead of presiding over my own agency, I was sitting on the other side of the desk as the vice president of development at the National Easter Seal Society.
Back then, I had the responsibility to pick and choose among the many direct-mail marketing agencies that came knocking on our door looking for new business and promising breakthrough results that would lead to higher income, lower costs, less attrition, greater efficiency and more loyal donors.
What a grand time. FundRaising Success ventured into the tricky awards arena for the first time this year. And even though it was all new to us, it was a terrific experience from start to finish. We had a better-than-expected showing — 33 packages in all, submitted by 10 agencies and two organizations — a small but enthusiastic group of judges and a lot of fun.
Newsletters, especially of the online variety, allow fundraisers to build and maintain relationships with stakeholders long before they even think about anteing up the greenbacks. Donors and prospects alike can now get engaged more often, and with more personal relevance — making it easier and more cost effective for nonprofits to forge links with individuals primed for giving.
