Merkle

We’ve been hard at work here at Easier Said Than Done Laboratories on the holy grail of fundraising — a new Unified Theory of Fundraising. I’m happy to announce some breakthrough discoveries: Three Laws of Fundraising Dynamics that will give you the theoretical platform for great fundraising.

COLUMBIA, Md., June 17, 2009 — Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing database marketing agencies, was recently honored with three 2009 “Benjamin Franklin Awards for Direct Marketing Excellence”, or “Bennies”, by the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association. The awards were presented during a ceremony at the Farmhouse at People’s Light in Malvern, Pa. on June 4, 2009.

If you haven’t gotten it yet, the memo is probably on its way. It says, with a great many words: You must cut your fundraising budget!

May 18, 2009 — Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing database marketing agencies, announced the acquisition of Little Rock, Ark.-based CognitiveDATA, a marketing technology company with award-winning, data quality innovations that help recognized retailers, insurance providers, nonprofits and financial services organizations ensure the accuracy of mail files and eliminate waste in their direct mail programs.

If fundraising were a person, and he or she was on Facebook, I’d tag her/him with the nasty “25 Random Things” meme. We’d learn some surprising things about fundraising. But since fundraising itself is a mute nonentity, I’ve taken the job upon myself …

COLUMBIA, Md., April 30, 2009 — Merkle ( www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation's largest and fastest growing database marketing agencies, announced its top rankings in a new report from Advertising Age magazine. The Agency Report 2009 ranks Merkle among the nation's top 10 Direct Marketing Agencies, in the top 25 U.S. Marketing Services Agencies and among the top 30 Agency Companies worldwide. With a 16.8% growth rate from 2007, Merkle holds the distinction of being the fastest growing direct marketing agency in the Top 20. The rankings were published in the April 27 issue of Advertising Age magazine ( www.adage.com). The magazine's annual report ranks marketing and advertising companies according to their 2008 revenue.

Donors want newsletters. Research has told us so. But most donor newsletters go unread. In last month’s Forum For Fundraising webinar on creating highly profitable donor newsletters, Tom Ahern, principal at Ahern | Communications | Ink, explained the disconnect and the reader psychology behind it, told attendees how to speak to donors' personalities, and shared some key secrets behind great donor newsletters.

My first leper: I was riding in a cab in crawling traffic from the airport into Calcutta, India, thrilled to be there and mesmerized by the sensory overload I was experiencing.

When I was new to fundraising, one thing about direct mail really bugged me: response rates. I’d look at the 5 percent to 8 percent response rates that are common and think, “That’s fine, but what about the 92 percent to 95 percent failure rate?”

As you’ve probably deduced by now, this column is not a money-making enterprise. For some inscrutable reason, a snarky advice column for fundraisers just doesn’t rake it in; must be the recession.