The New Yorker

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, such as Ripple and Litecoin, represent a total market capitalization of nearly $6 billion. Many large charities are eager to tap in to this market or have already received virtual donations, such as United Way Worldwide, which recently began accepting donations of Bitcoins. Smaller nonprofits have begun accepting the currency as well. This article discusses charitable donations of virtual currencies, including tax, appraisal, legal and processing considerations.

If you're part of a fundraising team, you probably won't escape it. Whether it's your name on the letter or not, at some point you'll be asked to review a fundraising letter, e-appeal, newsletter or other donor communication.

As end-of-the year giving gets under way, some charities like the American Red Cross are skipping disaster pictures and switching to gentler imagery to urge people to forgo extraneous holiday gifts and, instead, give “something that means something.”

To deliver its message, the American Red Cross has a new animated character in its multimedia campaign highlighting the seasonal dilemma of whether to please family and friends with material gifts or to give them something that betters the lives of others.

Why would anyone in his right mind suggest using humor in a fundraising campaign to help fight a terrible disease or address an important social cause? Ask any conventional direct-mail expert, and he’ll tell you humor is one of the quickest ways to kill your campaign. But in the 27 years I’ve been creating mailings, I’ve found humor to be an extremely effective tool for breaking through — and creating an instantly warm connection with people. In my experience, humor is perhaps the most effective way to humanize any organization. And when you do that, people begin to care. And respond. The problem