Awards

The Fast Pitch! Business Awards committee has named The Apogee Foundation “Top Non-Profit” in the First Annual Fast Pitch! Business Awards.

2008 was an amazing roller-coaster of a year on so many levels, filled with soaring highs and abysmal lows. A couple of the highlights: The Phillies won the World Series — hey, we’re in Philadelphia; it was a big deal (but whether it made the Eagles’ smashed Super Bowl dreams any less painful is debatable); and, oh yeah, history was made in the political arena when the American people gave Barack Obama the presidency.

PACKAGE OF THE YEAR Gold: Habitat for Humanity International Special Development Appeal (Craver, Mathews, Smith & Co.) Silver: Rhode Island Community Food Bank Annual Review Brochure (DaVinci Direct) Bronze (Tie): Tuskegee Airmen — Charles McGee Campaign (Fundraising Strategies) CARE November/December World Report (Merkle) ACQUISITION (50,000 OR MORE MAILED) Gold: Utah Food Bank 2007 Thanksgiving Donor Acquisition (L.W. Robbins) Silver: Wildlife Conservation Spring 2007 Acquisition (Schultz & Williams) Bronze: Mail Call Hurts (Gum Version) (Fundraising Strategies) ACQUISITION (FEWER THAN 50,000 MAILED) Gold: Tuskegee Airmen — Charles McGee (Fundraising Strategies) Silver: Bidawee “Welcome” (SCA DIrect) Bronze: Adaptive Clothing Gift Tag Package (Fundraising Strategies) RENEWAL (50,000

Last month, FundRaising Success named the winners of our 2008 Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards. Take some time now to learn a little more about them and their perspectives on fundraising. Fundraising Professional of the Year Michelle Speas Vice president of development and external relations Old Salem Museums & Gardens (Winston-Salem, N.C.) www.oldsalem.org Organization’s mission: To preserve, interpret and operate the restored town of Salem, from its founding in 1766 to the mid-1850s, as one of America’s largest living history museums. Annual operating budget: $5.8 million How much raised annually: $6.9 million Role models: My staff. They’re my source of inspiration, and they

Since day one, I’ve held that those of us who are responsible for putting out FundRaising Success learn more from our readers than our readers learn from us. And this year’s Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards have served to punctuate that belief. Each year, we send out nominating forms that are nice and neat, with perfectly balanced categories that cover what we think are all the bases. And each year, we name winners in those respective categories. But this year, the nominations weren’t so cut and dry, and we were reminded that there are thousands of fundraising pros out there who toil in

Wow! Who ever thought the Gold Awards could be so exciting? The sun was setting on judgement day, and we had a tie for Package of the Year. A first! So, I polled our four judges — Steve Froehlich, director of development analytics at the ASPCA; Tim O’Leary, vice president of McPherson Associates; Paul Bobnak, director of North American Publishing Co.’s Who’s Mailing What! Archive; and FS Senior Editor Abny Santicola. After some soul searching and spirited debate, they weighed in: two for one package and the other two for the other package.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of our annual Fundraising Pofessionals of the Year Awards, as well as thanking them for their hard work and dedication. And if you think we missed someone, make a note for next year and be sure to nominate him or her.

Grueling is the word that crossed the lips of the intrepid judges for our 2006 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence as they made their way out of our offices one hot afternoon in August.

Not that we’re particularly demanding taskmasters, but the competition was, indeed, fierce. Much to our glee, it grew from 33 packages in 2005 to nearly 90 this year (sent in by 21 agencies and four nonprofit organizations). Some of the categories remained the same, but we added a few and tweaked a few others.

Has it really been a year since I wrote a column announcing the First Annual Gold Awards for Direct-Mail Excellence? Must be, since it appeared in the March 2005 issue. But I haven’t even filed all of the paperwork from that competition. And it feels as though the awards just got mailed last month. (OK, they did just get mailed. But we won’t have that delay next time — I promise.) Wow, time really does fly. The deadline for this year’s awards is close of business on May 31. It’s a little earlier than last year because the competition already has grown, and judging

As I write this, Mother Nature has just now started to blow cooler breezes our way. My calendar says October. As you read this, yours probably says November.

Still, I have Christmas carols in my head. And this uneasy feeling that there aren’t enough shopping days left. Such is the fuzzy-logic limbo that is editorial planning. You live and breathe in quarters rather than days, and by the time a new season or even year rolls around, it’s been old news for three months.