Greg Fox
March 28, 2019 at 12:01 pm
Nonprofit organizations are spending more money in digital than ever before, whether to raise money from individual donors, recruit special event participants, increase brand awareness or support mission programs and services...
February 27, 2018 at 12:27 pm
By most standards, 2017 wasn’t a typical year. It was a carryover of perhaps the most memorable and emotionally charged presidential election ever: 2017 wasn’t one isolated event, but rather 12 months of extreme and prolonged emotion; the kind of raw emotion that some believe could influence long-term individual behavior and priorities...
November 10, 2017 at 10:54 am
In an industry where 75 percent of revenue comes from individuals, it’s only logical that we should be putting people first in our marketing efforts. It’s time that fundraisers learn how to become great at people-based marketing. Sounds reasonable, right? So why aren’t more of us doing it?...
September 12, 2017 at 11:29 am
Earlier this year, the Indiana School of Philanthropy predicted charitable giving would rise 3.6 percent in 2017. Based on the volume of individual contributions received during the first half of the year, it appears as if the industry is on pace to meet those projections...
July 5, 2017 at 11:10 am
The nonprofit industry is becoming more diversified and complex and as donor behaviors continue to evolve, it is imperative that direct-response fundraisers adopt new methods and/or solutions for quantifying the impact of their marketing investments. The days are gone when fundraisers could measure a campaign’s effectiveness or performance in a single media/channel view...
May 22, 2017 at 9:55 am
In a previous blog post, I briefly examined what appears to be a growing sentiment in the nonprofit industry that direct mail fundraising is somehow flawed. Fundraisers have been slow to abandon outdated business practices or to evolve quick enough to react to the mounting challenges facing nonprofits today—and yes, there are many that we must overcome...
March 28, 2017 at 8:35 am
In Roger Craver’s recent blog post, he challenged the nonprofit industry to “rev up the discussion” around what he calls the clichéd dictum of “mail more, raise more.” He goes so far as to suggest that most direct response fundraisers are buying into the myth that the only way to effectively increase revenue is to mail more...
February 3, 2017 at 10:39 am
As I have for four consecutive years, I’m starting 2017 off with a report on last year’s charitable giving volume. The analysis is based on 17 million individual direct mail contributions received in 2016 by more than 60 national nonprofit organizations. It encompasses six primary charitable sectors served by Merkle’s Response Management Group...
December 9, 2016 at 9:52 am
Curiosity has arguably been the catalyst for virtually every significant discovery and innovation known to man. Curiosity led one man to a new world. It was the motivation behind another man’s decision to fly a kite during an electrical storm. And it was a curiosity for typefaces that resulted in one of the most innovative…
August 9, 2016 at 11:10 am
Judging by the volume of charitable contributions processed over the first six months of 2016, it appears to be another up-and-down year for America’s nonprofit organizations. A more in-depth analysis into the data revealed some consistent and concerning trends that impacted the first half of 2016 and that likely may carry over into the second half of the year...
