2008 was an amazing roller-coaster of a year on so many levels, filled with soaring highs and abysmal lows. A couple of the highlights: The Phillies won the World Series — hey, we’re in Philadelphia; it was a big deal (but whether it made the Eagles’ smashed Super Bowl dreams any less painful is debatable); and, oh yeah, history was made in the political arena when the American people gave Barack Obama the presidency.
A direct-mail provider in the Chicagoland area recently posed a question about an experience he had with a client organization. We had several fundraising pros tackle the question and ran a number of responses last week. This week, a few more. My company partners with many nonprofit organizations. Several of them annually ask us for donations back. We make it known that our policy is to review what we have done for organizations in December, and if a company wants us to make a donation they may [ask us], in writing, at that time. About six weeks ago, one of these nonprofits contacted us
Leave it to ASPCA’s Steve Froehlich to sneak a little banter about one-night stands into a session at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s 2008 Washington Nonprofit Conference. Hey, the guy knows how to keep an audience on its toes. In the session titled, “Repeat After Me … I Will Give Again: Cementing Relationships that Garner a Second Gift,” which Steve co-presented with American Red Cross’ Margaret Carter and Convio’s Brian Hauf, he started off with this provocative question: “Before I begin, I’d like everyone who has ever had a one-night stand to think about how they felt the morning after.” (Needless to say there was
Wow! Who ever thought the Gold Awards could be so exciting? The sun was setting on judgement day, and we had a tie for Package of the Year. A first! So, I polled our four judges — Steve Froehlich, director of development analytics at the ASPCA; Tim O’Leary, vice president of McPherson Associates; Paul Bobnak, director of North American Publishing Co.’s Who’s Mailing What! Archive; and FS Senior Editor Abny Santicola. After some soul searching and spirited debate, they weighed in: two for one package and the other two for the other package.
Telemarketing can be a key component of an organization’s direct-marketing strategy — whether the goal is lapsed-donor conversion or upgrading existing donors to monthly giving programs. But it helps to learn a thing or two from experienced organizations — tips that can make setting up a telemarketing program a smoother process for everyone involved. In a session at the DMA Nonprofit Federation 2007 New York Nonprofit Conference, co-presenter Vicky Barrett-Putnam, director of donor development for the Sierra Club, talked about her organization’s telemarketing efforts. The Sierra Club has five telemarketing programs (renewals; reinstates — lapsed members; monthly givers; additional gift appeals; and its mid-level donor
