10 Creative Strategies to Cut Through the Clutter

[Editor's Note: During their presentation, “30 Ideas in 60 Minutes: Your Hour of Creative Power,” at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Fund Raising Day in New York on June 11, Jeff Brooks, creative director at TrueSense Marketing; Moira Kavanagh Crosby, president of MKDM; and Dennis Lonergan, president of Eidolon Communications, provided direct-response and online fundraising strategies to make your fundraising solicitations stand out from the crowd. Here, Crosby outlines her 10 strategies from the session.]

1. Scarce or shrinking prospect lists? Create your own.
People are getting more messages than ever, in more channels than ever, at a time when they have less than ever to give. This is particularly troubling in direct mail (the foundation on which most programs were built) because the model in DM is mail out/donors in. Market saturation and fragmentation of communication channels challenge this model.

The good news is that the donors are still there; we just need to expand on the ways we connect with them. One solution to the challenge of shrinking list universes is to create your own list of qualified prospects online.

There are many ways to do this:

• Compelling registration offer on your website
• Online interactive devices, like e-cards, petitions and pledges
• Or a microsite dedicated to a particular angle of your organization’s issues

MKDM worked with the American Legacy Foundation, a smoking prevention and cessation organization, to develop a microsite, My Legacy Story. Through the site, Legacy is creating a space for people to share stories about their experiences with tobacco — whether they're about their struggles to quit, hopes for loved ones to quit or, sadly, people that they’ve lost to smoking-related illnesses. It’s also a very effective list-building tool for people who share affinity for Legacy’s issues and might be interested in giving to the organization through subsequent conversion efforts.