More and more, it seems fundraisers and nonprofit consultants are touting the idea that "it's never too early" to start planning for the year-end holiday giving season. And recently, it seems like holiday fundraising campaigns are starting earlier and earlier.
With the 2012 presidential election quickly approaching, it's always interesting to look back and see some of the techniques political fundraisers utilize for their respective campaigns. So to kick off our November Mission of the Month — Political Fundraising — here are a few stories from FundRaising Success Gold Awards judge Paul Bobnak, research director of FS sister brand DirectMarketingIQ.
Three fundraising professionals shared some statistics on year-end giving and provided ways to make your end-of-year fundraising campaigns stand out from the crowd in the session "Taking Your End of Year Campaign … Outside the Box."
On Friday, the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association held its 2012 Package of the Year luncheon, honoring the Package of the Year winners. Here are some notable quotes from the event.
At the 2012 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference, three fundraising professionals ran an hour-long boot camp on multichannel and omnichannel creative strategies.
Segmentation and targeting are vital in direct-mail fundraising. If you aren't using it, you risk losing donors altogether. Because if a donor receives too much mail from too many places from one nonprofit, it may bug him or her enough to tune all of its communications out.
This past year, with the help of fundraising agency Grizzard Communications Group, The Salvation Army Canada used an integrated marketing strategy on its annual Christmastime campaign, branded the Dignity Project.
St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital sent a follow-up thank-you direct mailer to my online peer-to-peer gift and subsequently got me to give that all-important second gift.
If you don't take the time to take action for the good of the sector, you are essentially condoning its deterioration. Heed Angel's advice. Do your part. Visit www.dmaaction.org and make your voice, your organization's voice, your beneficiaries' and donors' voices heard. Without your help, there will be organizations that suffer, people whose needs won't be met, and all the great work your organizations do will be weakened.
If you can't even get the person's name or last gift right, how on earth do you expect a donor to believe you will use his or her donations effectively?
