Estimated giving in 2007 grew about 3.9 percent from the previous year according to a recent press release from Giving USA, a group that has measured these statistics for decades.
It appears that Americans gave about $306.39 billion. This in a year that had rising gas prices, housing market chaos, and an awful mortgage crisis! And [...]

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Elizabeth Schwinn over at Philanthropy.com has a great post about direct mail fundraising.
Studies are showing that boomers are responding at about the same rate as their parents.
Apparently, boomers haven’t gotten the news that direct mail isn’t working.
You can read the post, with a link to the study, at:
http://philanthropy.com/news/prospecting/4987/direct-mail-not-a-dying-fund-raising-method

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I just got an email from a person I didn’t know telling me about a firm I didn’t ask about.
It felt like spam.
Here’s my response:

Hi [marketer's name],
I’m not sure how we connected. This feels a bit unsolicited to me.
For what it’s worth:

I love that you personalized this with my name, thanks

but it took 121 words [...]

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I had fun today creating a parody of a sales letter for fundraising consulting. You can see it at www.GuiltFreeFundraising.com.
It’s loosely based on the calls I’ve gotten from people over the last 10 years asking me to do their fundraising for them.
It’s all meant in good fun. I got the idea from Fred Gleeck’s [...]

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I’m honored to have my Do It Yourself Fundraising featured at Network for Good’s Learning Center www.fundraising123.org.
Since articles on that site are “snack size,” mine is served in three portions:

Get R.E.A.L: Four Steps to a Successful Fundraising Plan

The 3 Pieces of Background You Need Before You “Make the Ask”

How to Approach Your Old and New [...]

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy posts about Seth Godin’s tips for email marketing.

Among the key items on Mr. Godin’s list:

Could I do this note better with a phone call?

Did every person on the list really and truly opt in? Not like sort of, but really ask for it?

Does the subject line make it easy to [...]

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Katya Andresen has a great post on how to compete like a champ in a tough economy.
She expands on this in her interview on the Ask Without Fear Radio Show.
I’ve also written about how to recession proof your fundraising at PNNonline.
In a similar vein, Nancy Schwartz has a good post on standing [...]

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One of my biggest frustrations is getting a passionate email appeal, clearly stating a need, but not telling me what to do to fix it. Do you want me to give money? Send a letter to the editor?
But it’s worse to get an email asking for a donation without a link to a donation [...]

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Jeff Brooks’ recent post at DonorPowerBlog is such a great reminder: when you’re writing fundraising letters, you need to write like a human being.
He offers a great real-life example of typical copy from a fundraising letter he received.

Winter disasters and other emergencies are on the way. And your gift to [name of charity deleted] [...]

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Here’s something I wrote for the Facebook page of my local library. Unfortunately, it’s too long for the 1000 character limit! So I post it here and hope it’ll help others.
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Hi gang,
Whatever you think of last night’s budget session, it’s clear that that we need to get the message out to an even broader [...]

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