Heifer International

Nonprofit fundraising often might feel like a never-ending task. Just when you seem able to juggle all the balls you’ve been handed, new ones in the form of different channels or higher goals are thrown into the mix. Maintaining tried-and-true fundraising techniques that have and still do shoulder the fundraising burden for your nonprofit while also keeping up with and on the cutting edge of new technologies and breaking ground into those new frontiers is no easy task. Ever wonder how your peers keep a fresh perspective on it all? Here, some of the winners of FundRaising Success’ 2007 Fundraising Professionals of the

The winners of FundRaising Success’ 2007 Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards are nonprofit fundraisers and consultants whose accomplishments have enriched the nonprofit sector. Each of their successes are a testament to their passion for the work that they do, and their ability to harness this passion for good. I asked award winners to share the keys to their success with FS Advisor readers. Here, a sampling of their responses: * Dixie Ost, director of direct marketing, Heifer International, and one of our Top Women in Fundraising: Find the smartest people, give them opportunities, reward success. * Chuck Longfield, chief executive officer, Target Analysis Group,

Please join us in congratulating the winners of our annual Fundraising Pofessionals of the Year Awards, as well as thanking them for their hard work and dedication. And if you think we missed someone, make a note for next year and be sure to nominate him or her.

A Horse of a Different Color Jan. 24, 2006 By Abny Santicola, associate editor, FundRaising Success Farmers aren't the only ones "branding" livestock anymore. Heifer International does it. And so does Food for the Poor. Both organizations send out catalogs to past donors and prospects through which they can purchase goats, chickens, cows and other farm/ranch animals as a donation to a needy family, most often in Third World countries. "Abstract gifts" is what Angel Aloma, executive director of Food for the Poor, calls them. Gifts can be made in honor of friends or family members, who receive cards announcing that donations were made

Eight hundred million. It’s a big number and a lot of money. But if you want to grasp the real magnitude of it, give that number a human face.

According to statistics released by the United Nations, 800 million represents the number of people worldwide who are chronically hungry.

So this is Christmas. With all due props to John Lennon, that was the thought that wormed its way through my mind as I did some holiday shopping around Thanksgiving. Weary disenchantment dogged me early because, by mid-November, shoppers already were showing signs of the impatience, impoliteness and downright nastiness that inexplicably is characteristic of what should be the warmest of seasons.

Alas, Christmas was looking bleak, a sad testament to out-of-control consumerism — consumerism bedecked with tinsel and twinkling lights, but consumerism nonetheless.