Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

January 9, 2010, The Washington Post — The world awoke Friday to discover that Davi's bra is black. Janet's is blue with bows. Kim's is pink. And Susan's is a "decadent beige."

In 1997, online donations in the United States totaled a mere $300,000. In 2007, online donations were pinpointed at $10.44 billion reflecting exponential growth in overall giving and technology, according to a Harvard University study on innovation in Social Enterprise.

You probably know Facebook as a social-networking site that allows people to connect with friends, co-workers and classmates; upload photographs; share links and videos; and join community networks that mirror their interests.

But Facebook now is stepping into the fundraising field by allowing users to buy virtual gifts or icons to send to their friends to benefit charity.

Men are a somewhat forgotten demographic in the fundraising world. Nonprofits have long created campaigns that target women, minorities or other specific groups, but men seem to fall by the wayside, lumped into other general campaigns.

This probably is a mistake. Those few groups that do target men as potential donors find that while men give to fewer causes than women do, they give more to those causes they support — and there are some proven ways to make your work their cause.

More and more organizations are holding special events with participant-managed fundraising — both online and offline. Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the MS Society are some organizations that have relied on this fundraising method. Add to that list Chicago-based breast cancer support organization Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, which sent out this mailing for a three-mile Mother’s Day walk in early spring. Aside from the mailing’s main purpose of motivating people to participate in the walk and raise funds for the organization, it does an incredible job showcasing the Y-ME brand — an important objective considering the hundreds,

BCA Fights to Set Itself Apart May 2, 2006 By Abny Santicola, editor, FS Advisor What do you do when your organization's No. 1 funding challenge is differentiating itself from the hundreds or even thousands of other organizations, larger and smaller than yours, with the same mission? With a mailing list of 16,000, half of which are donors, San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Action is smaller than organizations such as the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation but larger than the many local breast cancer organizations out there. Getting people to distinguish BCA from other organizations is tough. Executive Director Barbara Brenner says it's

As your mother said, saying “thank you” is really important. For nonprofit organizations, it’s essential. In fact, if you don’t express gratitude quickly and well, your donors are likely to give somewhere else.

Fundraisers radically modify the value proposition with prospects and donors when they offer incentives for giving. Albeit engaging, some experts consider the technique to be short sighted, for renewing premium-acquired donors can be arduous and cost prohibitive.