Robbin Gehrke

Best Friends Animal Society, located in the heart of southern Utah’s golden circle of National Parks, is home to as many as 1,500 dogs, cats, horses, rabbits and other animals. For the past 10 years, the organization had been using the same acquisition package. Although it had done a great job, response rates were dropping, causing the donor file to remain flat.

The situation was dire: If a new package wasn’t created, the file actually would have started to decrease, which could have led to cuts in service.

CTip Feb. 21, 2006 By Abny Santicola Conference sessions can provide attendees a wealth of information and motivation to take back to the office and apply to their organizations. But so can the ensuing Q-&-A period after each session. The Q-&-A period during one of the first sessions of the conference -- "How to Beat a Long-Standing Control" -- yielded some helpful tips. Most notably, one attendee asked for advice on her organization's dilemma of what to do about its aging celebrity endorser, who is featured prominently in the organization's direct mail. The organization knew that it would eventually need to transition