Sierra Club

Freemiums and premiums have long been staples of direct-mail fundraising. In this video, Direct Marketing IQ's Paul Bobnak takes a look at this practice with a little twist. He reviews the tried-and-true method of address labels included in a Paralyzed Veterans of America mailing and then lays out how both the Sierra Club and Doctors Without Borders utilize maps as engaging freemiums for donors.

Online giving is still growing, but triple-digit annual increases are a thing of the past. Internet fundraising grew by roughly 13 percent last year, according to a survey of 100 of the largest nonprofits conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The Chronicle surveyed all the organizations in its Philanthropy 400 rankings of the largest nonprofits measured by annual fundraising. Of the 100 that responded, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society topped the list, with more than $98 million in Internet gifts in 2013.

Gone are the days when nonprofits needed to rely only on street canvassing and paper pleas for donations. Email and social media are quickly revolutionizing charity, and according to a new study from M+R and the Nonprofit Technology Network, 2013 was the space's best year yet.

The study breaks down exactly how leading U.S. nonprofits performed online in the past year. In 2013, Internet users donated more than ever before — online giving increased 14 percent since 2012, with more than 5.5 million total gifts and nearly $325 million raised.

Not only do speakers at Engage reside over our in-depth cases studies and delve deep into attendees' concerns and questions, but they're available all day long to chat and further explore whatever it is the audience is looking to explore.

As foundation executives leave for Capitol Hill to educate members of Congress about issues in philanthropy, one wonders whether the complexities and challenges of U.S. philanthropy haven’t been so downplayed in the foundation sector lobbying as to lead legislators into inappropriate conceptual byways. The simplification of philanthropy for the purposes of speaking to Capitol Hill legislators and staff members may be counterproductive in the long run.

We all know policy advocacy and campaigning can be a wild ride. But how do we know we’re really making a difference? At Oxfam, we are constantly asking ourselves: How do we measure our reach, access and influence? I asked myself if the tools we’ve built were as good as they could be or if there wa something else we should bring in. So I invited nine leading advocacy organizations to join in a comparative review of our approaches, a you-show-me-yours-I’ll-show-you-mine methodology, to learn what we’re all doing in practice.

Make sure those thumb-through folks see your important direct-mail components first … so they turn into content-pullers and engage with you.

Here are more provocative nuggets from the recent AFP International Conference in Vancouver. I just couldn't resist sharing these "status-quo" challenges! Take this list to your next board meeting. Ask your board members: "What are your impressions of these ideas?"

Kim Cubine shares political fundraising takeaways for the 2012 presidential election cycle offered at the panel discussion “The Great Debate: Channel Wars — Red vs. Blue, Old vs. New.”

YMCA of the USA, the resource office for the nation's YMCAs, has received a $500,000 grant from The Sierra Club Foundation to provide thousands of military youth and their family members with outdoor camp experiences at YMCA day camps, overnight camps and family camps from April 2011 through March 2012. This announcement comes on the heels of First Lady Michelle Obama's call this morning for greater support for military families.