A Look Back — and Forward
Jill Murphy, membership manager, Association of Government Accountants
Fundraising was really rooted in direct mail. E-mail was still an unknown, and while Jo Sullivan and I tried to get the ball rolling on mobile, that was still a few years away. We won’t even broach social media because it wasn’t around for the most part — although I did have someone do an article in the DMANF Journal called “We’ll meet you at MySpace” in [2006], and that was way out there.
I think we were all worried about aging donors — probably still are.
What has changed since 2003/2004?
George Lizama, CEO and co-founder, Production Solutions
Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen three trends in fundraising, and specifically in direct mail:
- The growth and complexity of postal processing logistics. Compared to 2003, it is much more technical (in terms of geography, density in location, type of package, etc.), therefore pushing fundraisers to be more strategic about their mailings in order to achieve the proper discounts their organizations are entitled to get.
- Like gum on the bottom of your shoe, fundraisers can’t seem to shake premium mail! It’s still very effective for certain donor audiences and for certain giving levels. It’s the bittersweet pill we bicker about, but premiums are not going away anytime soon.
- Last but not least, there has been an increase in major and mid-dollar donor spending. Organizations are finding that the investment is indeed worth the return.
Sandy Rees, consultant and coach, Get Fully Funded
I don’t think that much has changed really since 2003-04. We still need to pay more attention to our donors and building relationships with them. Of course, the “techno tools” have evolved and gotten amazingly better. We have more tools to work faster and smarter, but the basics still apply.
