World Wildlife Fund

At the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation's 2012 Washington Nonprofit Conference, five fundraising pros shared their secrets to implementing and running a monthly giving program in their session, "25 Proven Monthly Giving Tools & Ideas Packed in 50 Minutes."

Charities are looking for ways to visualize data to explain complex issues succinctly, spur advocacy, support their fundraising, and show donors where their money is going. Some, like the World Wildlife Fund, are creating infographics that can be shared easily via social media, while others are creating interactive Web tools that allow users to slice and dice the data on their own.

Good visualizations can also help charities better understand their own data and use those insights to improve their programs, says Jake Porway, founder of Data Without Borders.

At the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation's 2012 Washington Nonprofit Conference Thursday, five fundraising pros shared their secrets to implementing and running a monthly giving program in their session, "25 Proven Monthly Giving Tools & Ideas Packed in 50 Minutes."

There is a crisis in the nonprofit sector. Since the great recession began, donations to the largest charities in the U.S. have dropped by billions. But the financial meltdown has not affected all charities and nonprofits equally. More versatile, general-purpose charities are faring the worst. For more tightly focused nonprofits, the decline is not nearly as sharp.

The more fundamental core problem is strategic. These institutions lack a strategy for connecting their mission with their ability to deliver. In short, this is a crisis of coherence.

Forty-four community organizations around the world will receive a total of $6 million in grant awards from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company. The grants, approved during the second quarter, support community initiatives aimed at improving education, fitness and nutrition programs, community recycling and access to clean water.

Since the beginning of the year, The Coca-Cola Foundation has awarded more than $38 million to 123 organizations. Of the $6 million allocated during the second quarter, approximately $5.4 million support the Foundation's community investment priorities, including:

Customer relationship agency Merkle has named Will Stansbury as vice president of technology solutions for nonprofit practice. The new addition to Merkle's team of 140 experts in nonprofit marketing and fundraising emphasizes the company's commitment to solving the technological needs of clients who engage with constituents via multiple offline and digital touchpoints. With more than 20 years of technology experience in the nonprofit space, Stansbury was a co-founder of Target Software, which became a Blackbaud company in 2007.

"Borrowing" ideas from other nonprofits has resulted in some big fundraising breakthroughs. The secret, however, to successful borrowing hinges on these few unbreakable rules.

Development aid news and job board service Devex recently announced the Devex Top 40 Development Innovators.

Blackbaud has launched its Global Account Program, an initiative that streamlines service and support of  international non-governmental organizations (iNGOs). The Global Account Program began in 2010 as a pilot program. Based on the success achieved with a small group of customers, Blackbaud is rolling out the program to more customers and prospects, dedicating global resources to ensure the success for its largest international customers.

Today Roger Craver is being inducted into the American Association of Political Consultants Hall of Fame.

Here’s what AAPC has to say about Roger …

David Broder called him “a bomb thrower”… The Wall Street Journal claimed he was the “assassin” of all things right wing.