Strategic Fundraising

The South Carolina Secretary of State has fined a Minnesota company more than $1 million dollars for violating the state's Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act. Secretary of State Mark Hammond's office has fined Strategic Fundraising Inc. $1,054,000 for what it says were "numerous violations," including mandatory disclosure and failure to register. The investigation concluded the company's callers did not disclose they were paid or professional solicitors, the location of the charitable organization for which the caller was soliciting and "misrepresentation of the percentage of donations used for charitable programs."

Nonprofit competition is keen. You must create a story that is unique and separates your organization from others in the community.

Telefundraising agency Strategic Fundraising Inc. announced the appointment of Eric Johnson as vice president of new business development. Johnson will be responsible for identifying new opportunities for the company, as well as deepening relationships with the existing client base.

Johnson is a direct response media buying veteran. He spent the early days of his career as a direct response media buyer for Novus Marketing and JDA Enterprises, a consumer packaged goods marketer. He has written on the challenges of customer acquisition in a difficult economy, and has lectured at several industry conferences and workshops.

This week's industry news includes the announcement of new donor widgets, a new  agency/organization partnership and a new CEO.

St. Paul, MN, August 5, 2009 — Strategic Fundraising, Inc., one of the nation’s premier telefundraising agencies serving clients in the nonprofit and political sectors, is pleased to welcome accomplished fundraising and business development executive Doug Hauth as Director of Strategic Partnerships.

NEW ORLEANS, LA, March 30, 2009 — Sage North America today announced several fundraising technology developments designed to further help nonprofit organizations support their missions. The company will soon offer a new ePhilanthropy tool; has a renewed focus on adding next-generation technical capabilities to its Millennium fundraising platform; and has launched fully managed hosting services for its Sage Fundraising 50 software. Sage is demonstrating all of these technologies on the trade show floor at the Association of Fundraising Professionals' (AFP) 2009 International Conference on Fundraising, being held through Wednesday at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

In talking about international non-governmental organisations, it’s tempting to treat them as a homogenous group. But they differ widely due to their governance structures: headquarters/branch operations, federations, loose networks and various confederations. Therefore, their approaches to global fundraising management can be quite different. So spotting trends among them can be difficult, but let’s see what’s on the INGO agenda.