NARAL: Pro Choice America

In a session last week at the DMA Nonprofit Federation 2007 New York Nonprofit Conference, Jennifer Donahue, director of development for NARAL Pro-Choice America, discussed her organization’s experiences integrating e-mail, telefundraising and postal mail. According to Donahue, NARAL’s journey to integration began when it had successful direct-mail, telemarketing and Internet fundraising programs and asked the question “What now?” Among its integration efforts, NARAL began using the telephone to convert non-donating online activists who didn’t respond to direct mail. The organization saw a 2-to-1 improvement in response, which Donahue attributes to the fact that activists were contacted within 24 hours after they took an action.

NARAL Pro-Choice America often is perceived as being on the fringe. That’s a given.

On the plus side, that perception helps the Washington, D.C.-based pro-choice activist organization attract passionate supporters. Indeed, Stephanie Kushner, director of development for NARAL Pro-Choice America, says her major donors need fewer tangible benefits because they’re motivated by pure zeal for the organization’s work.

Isn’t it funny how one word often can instill an emotion — be it fear, empathy, concern, anger, etc. — in the heart and mind of the person who sees or hears it? The outer envelope of this mailing sent by NARAL Pro-Choice America has a red horizontal bar above the address box that reads: “URGENT MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL.” The word “urgent” makes the mailing suddenly a hot potato that needs to be opened and read instantly. For those recipients who have seen this urgency tactic before -- and it is used often in nonprofit advocacy mailings -- NARAL turns up the heat with an affixed

Multiple Channels Can Strengthen Each Other Multiple Channels Can Strengthen Each Other March 21, 2006 By Abny Santicola, editor, FundRaising Success Advisor An e-mail campaign should be central to your multi-channel marketing efforts, says Sheeraz Haji, CEO of Berkeley, Calif.-based provider of online constituent-relationship-management services GetActive. While it does depend a bit on an organization's audience and constituents, Haji says there are very few demographics not online today. In multi-channel fundraising efforts, when considering which donors to solicit via e-mail, don't rule out the older demographic. While audiences aged 55 and older have the lowest e-mail penetration rates, their penetration rates are also

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.

Popularly defined as those individuals born between the mid-1960s and late 1970s, Generation X is the most maligned and enigmatic generational cohort of the 20th century. Often characterized as aloof, cynical and fiercely independent, Gen-Xers have been largely overlooked by charitable organizations as an active philanthropic-giving group.

Even now, as the generation enters its prime employment and household-formation years, targeted appeals tend to place more emphasis on Generation Y, or the “echo boomers” — those technologically savvy individuals born after 1980 — and the baby boomers themselves, for their obvious size and spending power.