#TBTFundraising: Rekindle Your Passion

I became a direct-response donor (mail was my only option then!) in the late ’70s and early ’80s — first as a teenager attending high school in my hometown of Clarksburg, W.V., and later as a college student in Washington, D.C. My scrapbooks are full of the packages that grabbed my attention and my small gifts that were made from working in the local drug store or waiting tables. They are the history of a youth that believed in ERA NOW, equal pay for women, reproductive rights and an independent candidate for president.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would one day actually own the company that produced those fabulous pieces of advocacy and fundraising. But here I am! And one of my favorite things to do lately is to dive in to those archives and celebrate with Throwback Thursday Fundraising (#TBTFundraising) each week.

I highly recommend that you do the same thing with your archives. There are treasures in your closets, sample books and art files, and I promise if you dip into yours that you will not only have a great time on the journey each week but learn some things along the way.

My journey includes wonderful memories of the late Sheri O’Dell, a marvelous woman and copywriter with a big heart and one of the best activists and champions of women that I have ever known or hoped to know.

O’Dell would sit at her desk at Craver, Mathews, Smith & Co. with her framed ERA memorabilia and photos of her beloved West Virginia on the walls and pound out some of the best fundraising packages to hit the mailstream. Her passion for the causes and her way with prose could cause the reader to get angry (with righteous anger!), take action, and make a donation to causes that ranged from gun control to abortion rights to constitutional rights and human dignity. I miss her — reading her packages makes her come alive again. She believed everything she wrote, and you could feel that when you read her words.