Network for Good

Soon after I was divorced, I heard a story on NPR that really got to me. I was driving home from work, half-listening to a profile of East St. Louis. It was about the area’s extreme poverty and the efforts of some extraordinary people to rise above their circumstances and make better lives for their families. The details are long lost, but I remember one person from the story perfectly. She seized my complete attention. She was a single mother working long hours to support her two daughters. She’d cobbled together the funds to send them to a good school, and she was doing

Some time ago, while driving in my home base of Washington, D.C., I stopped at a red light next to a Honda Civic of a certain age. An old age. The hatchback and bumper were covered top to bottom with bumper stickers. You know the kind of car I’m talking about. There’s one in every traffic jam — especially if you live in a college town. It’s a compact car chockablock with a bewildering array of declarations of belief. Maybe you even drive one (not that there’s anything wrong with that). It’s fine to drive such a vehicle, really, but it’s not OK to

Following its 1983 campaign to fund the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, credit card heavyweight American Express was ordained the “father of cause marketing.” Every time people used their plastic to make a purchase, 1 cent was donated to the fund to restore Lady Liberty, and the effort raised $1.7 million. “It was taking a risk at something new, and it worked,” Mikel Koon, president of Arlington, Va.-based consultancy Mosaik Strategies, said at her session “Cause Marketing: Corporate Chic or Corporate Savvy” at the 2008 Bridge Conference held last week in Washington, D.C. “They helped a cause and saw a 28 percent

No matter how you feel about any particular fundraising strategy — love direct mail … hate telefundraising … hot for Web-based stuff — there’s no denying that true fundraising success comes from the seamless integration of strategies and techniques. In FundRaising Success’ July webinar, Jono Smith, director of marketing for Network for Good, talks with a pair of nonprofits about their successful multichannel campaigns and offers tips on how you can re-create their success. Join Jono and other fundraising professionals at 2 p.m. on July 30 as they examine the value of the multipronged approach to fundraising, tips on consistent messaging and creative, and

Through the end of the year, we’ll be running a “Meet Our Advisors” feature as a way to introduce readers to the members of our Editorial Advisory Board. This week, meet Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing for Network for Good , a charitable giving portal that aims to make it simple and affordable for nonprofits to recruit donors and volunteers via the Internet. Andresen develops and executes NFG’s marketing strategy, including consumer outreach, media relations, corporate partnerships and nonprofit marketing. Grew up in: Chapel Hill, N.C. Education: “At Haverford College in Pennsylvania, I studied history, including practical courses such as Women

A few years ago, I jumped into the virtual world known as Second Life. I created an avatar that was much thinner, much prettier and decidedly more exotic than I am (she looked a lot more like Angelina Jolie than she did me), and I gave her a cool name. The fact that I don’t remember what it was should tell you where this is heading. When I finished the creation stage — voila! — there was Margelina (we’ll call her, in retrospect), tall and beautiful, and standing completely naked in this weird, other-wordly place that was rather dark and just a little menacing.

Back by popular demand, Marketing Maven is here to answer your questions about fundraising and other life challenges.

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been told that I’m too hard on myself (and, unfortunately, on everyone around me — but that’s another story). I hope you’ll agree (with the first part, anyway) when I fess up to the misgivings I’ve been having about some of our editorial content. I’m mainly talking about our weekly e-letter, the FS Advisor, and our newest e-letter, Giving 2.0. We’ve been rather short-staffed for what seems like forever, and I’ve been losing sleep (yes, literally — how sad is that?) over the fact that a lot of our e-letter content has been picked up

From NetSquared, an online community created by TechSoup, that offers nonprofits direct assistance, Web-based knowledge and resources, and donated technology: How would you mashup the Network for Good donation processing service with other services to make it easier for nonprofits to raise money online? We’re working with Network for Good, the Case Foundation and the NetSquared community to enhance the online donation process. There are two categories to enter: * Build a mashup using Network for Good’s donation API, with a particular focus on enhancing the donor experience. * Build a mashup using Network for Good’s donation API,with a particular focus on improving or

This month, as we turn our focus to the international face of fundraising, I’m turning over my column and a large part of the editorial planning for the issue to the charismatic, highly regarded Tony Elischer, who very kindly agreed to act as Guest Editor.