People Magazine

Five Tips to Better E-mail Campaigns Jan. 10, 2006 By Abny Santicola, associate editor, FundRaising Success In her session "Internet and E-mail Prospecting: How to Do It Right" at the List Vision conference in New York over the summer, Anne Holland, publisher and editor with marketing research firm MarketingSherpa, shared practical advice on what works and what doesn't for e-mail campaigns, including the importance of landing pages, tracking and testing. Holland's session highlighted the following five statistic-based tips from MarketingSherpa research: 1) Welcome messages are the most read e-mails. Most people have automated messages that go out when someone opts in to their

Three Keys to Cultivating Donors Online Dec. 27, 2005 By Bill Strathmann Network for Good's success is rooted in three principles of online outreach, which are key to any nonprofit focused on cultivating donors on the Internet:   1) Reach out to audiences when they already feel an impulse to give. Network for Good does this through our powerful media partners, AOL and Yahoo! For example, in the wake of Katrina's devastation and after the horrible earthquake in South Asia, AOL and Yahoo! news content included "how to help" links to our site. People heard the news, they were moved by the plight of

Five-Minute Interview With Laura Bykowski Dec. 27, 2005 By Abny Santicola, associate editor, FundRaising Success I recently had the opportunity to pose the following questions to Laura Bykowski, director of Web applications for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, regarding her organization's e-philanthropy efforts. Her responses are below: FundRaising Success: How does your organization use the Web, e-mail, etc., to raise funds online? Laura Bykowski: The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has a variety of Internet-based tools for raising funds online. All MSS chapters across the country have the ability to access these tools. The majority of funds raised online are through MSS events -- the

Las Vegas: known for its high rollers, Elvis impersonators, and Siegfried and Roy. But now the glitzy city also is attracting attention for a major philanthropic success.

The Ins and Outs of Premiums Oct. 4, 2005 By Abny Santicola, FundRaising Success Not all premiums are created equal, nor do all of them work for all nonprofit organizations. Dean Rieck, consultant, copywriter and creative director with Columbus, Ohio-based Direct Creative, says personalized mailing labels, tote bags, calendars, note cards and bumper stickers can all work for nonprofits. "But this is tricky," Rieck adds. "If your premium seems to be too expensive, people will think you're wasting their money. But it has to have some perceived value in order to work." Rieck says personalized mailing labels often work well because they find

Having worked with three nonprofits over the past 17 years has taught me the importance of identifying and nurturing one of the most significant resources of any organization — its older donors. Cultivating these donors enriches their lives and allows them to have a positive impact on their favorite charities beyond their cash-generating years.

I just read about Harvard receiving another eight-figure gift, substantially adding to its huge endowment coffers. And here you are, a development officer for a venerable institution, wondering what it is about Harvard that enables it to habitually attract such large gifts. As a consultant, I encounter this wonderment from my clients regularly. So I’ve begun asking the people who make those large gifts.

Why Bill Gates Is Not a Prospect for Your Campaign FS Advisor: July 19, 2005 By Robert Hoak Every year, development directors of nonprofits wait with bated breath for the arrival of the Forbes 400 List of the Richest People in America, the fundraiser’s guide to where the big money is. Right? You have a great project. Bill Gates gives away a lot of money. You should have Bill at the top of your prospect list. He would be a great prospect, right? Wrong! Unless your organization is immunizing against Hepatitis B in Andhra Pradesh or administering a library with a cutting-edge technology

The hardest thing for most development officers to do is to GET OUT OF THE OFFICE and spend time face to face with donors discussing a major or planned gift. Sometimes the problem is based on a latent fear of being put “on the spot” and not knowing what to say. One way to overcome the fear is simply to be enthusiastic. Take a cue from Vartan Gregorian, former CEO of the New York Public Library. According to Jerry Panas, author of “Asking: A 59-Minute Guide to Everything Board Members, Volunteers and Staff Must Know to Secure the Gift,” Gregorian makes everyone

Often times people confuse creativity with a specific skill, like writing or drawing, says direct mail copywriter and consultant Alan Rosenspan. But those are just techniques that can be learned. Creativity is the process of solving problems, of seeing things in a new way, of coming up with ideas and of connecting things, he says. Does your organization do brainstorming? Rosenspan offers the following tips, including lessons he’s learned in leading and attending hundreds of brainstorming sessions over the years. 1. INVITE THE RIGHT PEOPLE. You might have assembled a bright and creative group of people, but they might have little experience with the