The book “Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications,” by Sarah Durham, offers nonprofit organizations strategies to communicate more effectively using limited resources — which has become an even greater challenge for many nonprofits, large and small, in today’s struggling economy.
Read MorePerson: Sarah Durham
Relationships 2.0
From the Barack Obama fundraising juggernaut to an ironic, grassroots campaign for Planned Parenthood, fundraising in 2008 was all about relationships — both off- and online. In her “Relationships 2.0” feature, Sarah Durham wrangles the overarching strategies from a number of efforts, which you can use in your own campaigns.How Does Your (Fundraising) Garden Grow?That’s…
Read MoreHow Does Your (Fundraising) Garden Grow?
That’s the question that Paula Birnbaum Guillet, head of fundraising development and innovation at UNICEF, and global fundraising consultant Bernard Ross ask in this month’s cover story, a special report on fundraising innovation. The consensus: If your approach to fundraising is overrun with the weeds of fear and stale thinking, it’s time to sow some seeds of innovation. This report shows you how.
Relationships 2.0
From the Barack Obama fundraising juggernaut to an ironic, grassroots campaign for Planned Parenthood, fundraising in 2008 was all about relationships — both off- and online. In her “Relationships 2.0” feature, Sarah Durham wrangles the overarching strategies from a number of efforts, which you can use in your own campaigns.
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You Talkin’ to Us?
You can, you know. If you want to share your thoughts on something you’ve seen (or would like to see) in the pages of FS or in either of our e-letters (the FS Advisor or FS Giving 2.0) or on fundraising in general, drop us a line at mbattistelli@napco.com. Right now, we’re especially interested in hearing about how the economic downturn is affecting your fundraising, both in strategies and response.
Relationships 2.0
For fundraisers, the first quarter of the year is as much a time to look back as ahead. It’s a time to find out how year-end appeals tallied up, to assess how winter events performed and perhaps to report back to the board on what it all means.
Read MoreGet Your Head Out of … the Sand
Yesterday, the mother of a sick child Googled the name of a devastating disease. She got thousands of results, but the ones that interested her the most were links to your organization’s Web site; two stories from the national media; a handful of online support groups for patients and their families; a general health Web site with online communities dedicated to the disease; and one site focused exclusively on a heartsick father’s negative experience with an operator on your organization’s support line.
Read MoreThe Great Schlep
For fundraisers, 2008 was a year of change and challenge. Plummeting endowments, budget cuts and other lows added pressure to bring in new money while spending even less than before.
Read MoreE-Mail Tips From the Obama Campaign
Tips about wildly successful fundraising and awareness strategies will continue to be culled from the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign for months to come. If you have passionate constituents, tasty pieces of breaking news can be effectively delivered to supporters’ cell phones, and you can leverage these numbers to activate your grassroots support — maybe even with mobile phone fundraising (“text to give”).
Read MoreLesson from Obama ’08
The fundraising and awareness juggernaut that propelled Barack Obama to the presidency is chock full of fundraising tips for nonprofits, especially in the area of e- and mobile efforts. Here are two of the biggies.
Read MoreWestchester Land Trust
Nonprofit staff and board members share a common passion for their organizations’ work and often speak to each other as “insiders,” using jargon or shorthand for the programs and issues they work on. For instance, social service organizations might talk internally about “at-risk” audiences or “partner organizations.”
Read MoreScary New Worlds
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.
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