Giving 2.0
Late last month, FundRaising Success launched its second e-strategy guide, Giving 2.0, a twice-monthly (for now) e-letter that offers insight, tips and advice on the most cutting-edge tactics that fundraisers are (or should be) using to meet their goals.
As I plan features and seek out writers for upcoming issues (for Giving 2.0, the FS Advisor and the magazine itself), I find myself increasingly looking beyond the circle of experts that deal specifically with nonprofit fundraising and incorporating pros from the rest of the universe.
Every kind of business from banks and stock brokers to radio stations and pizza joints is sending customers text messages about news and promotions. Fundraisers are doing it too, so there’s lots to be gleaned across the board. And then there’s online donating. No, donors aren’t actually buying anything from a nonprofit organization’s Web site (unless it includes an e-store), but wouldn’t the sharpest techniques from the e-tail universe be something that fundraisers who “do business” on the Web should know about and, perhaps, emulate?
I sure think so. And my opinion was bolstered when Melissa Campanelli, editor-in-chief of FS’ new sister publication, eM+C (www.emarketingandcommerce.com), told me that many of the folks who subscribe to the eM+C Weekly e-letter are from nonprofit organizations.
I was glad to hear that. Not only because it supports my own ideas, but mainly because it indicates an acknowledgment on behalf of the fundraising world that doors are opening all over the place — and a willingness to seek out the best ways to walk through them.
Join our Reader Panel
If you’re on the fundraising staff at a nonprofit organization — regardless of its size or mission — and would like to be part of the newly conceived FS Reader Panel, please drop me a note (and be sure to put “FS Reader Panel” in the subject line). We’ll be asking for panelists through the end of March.