United Spinal Association

Some question whether the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance charity ratings really have teeth, and if the up to $15,000 it receives annually from charities that pay to use its seal of accreditation influences its decisions. The questions come as many charities, particularly smaller ones, struggle to raise money as the proportion of people's incomes devoted to charitable giving remains stagnant.

Infogroup’s TargetReady Models have been applied to the highly responsive VetsFirst file. TargetReady Models were developed to provide ready-made “marketing answers” to marketers utilizing a full array of available Infogroup data. Every possible variable is used to capture demographic, lifestyle and census data with specific categories selected based on consumer behavior and attitudes.

After a year as a consultant and a reporter-at-large for Fundraising Success magazine, I was offered a full-time employment opportunity by one of my nonprofit clients, the United Spinal Association. I was excited about getting back on the “other” side of the desk again. This would be my first new job since becoming director of fundraising for Consumers Union more than eight years ago. That seemed to me like the distant past (in a galaxy far, far away), and I was trying to remember what I did when starting at CU. My first day at United Spinal was supposed to be Jan. 2 but, under the