In the wake of the huge number of donations given to Haiti earthquake relief via text mesage, MobileActive has published Texting for Charitable Dollars: The Definitive Guide. 
It describes the process of raising funds via SMS from the donors’ and the nonprofits’ perspectives, including costs and tips for getting started. The guide is available for free [...]

Tags: Fundraising, Mobile Communications, Online Fundraising

San Francisco’s Fundraising Day will be happening June 16 at the downtown Marriott.  Once again I have the honor of co-chairing the Technology Track with Michael Stein. We’ve programmed sessions on online fundraising with Madeline Stanionis, social media with Jeff Patrick, database selection with Eric Leland, and an open discussion session with me and [...]

Tags: Donor Databases, Email Marketing, Fundraising, Online Fundraising, Social Media, Web 2.0

My friends at Idealware have created a new fund to support their research.  Many of Idealware’s reports have been funded by foundations and some have had corporate sponsorship. As you probably know, neither foundation nor corporate support is a reliable funding source these days. In addition, since Idealware must maintain its independence in order to [...]

Tags: Donor Databases, Fundraising, IT Management, Nonprofit Management, Nonprofit Technology, Online Fundraising, Social Media, Web 2.0

I spent the last 3 days at the CASE District VII conference, for schools in AZ, CA, Guam, HI, NV, and UT.  Social Media was a big topic this year, with workshop titles like "Maximizing Social Networks and Online Resources in Alumni Relations", "Now That Facebook and Twitter Aren’t Enough: Integrating Social Media into [...]

Tags: Fundraising, Online Fundraising, Social Media

I got a press release today from a PR firm promoting its client’s plans to raise $1,000 for Thanksgiving meals and $5,000 for families in need at Christmas. 
While these are certainly laudable goals, I had a strong negative reaction. First, the message is spam.  I have no connection to, and have never heard of, the [...]

Tags: Fundraising

The Chronicle of Philanthropy isn’t known for giving away money, but for talking about how to get it. They’ve come up with a contest to benefit a few lucky nonprofits. Here’s the deal:
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Tags: fund, Fundraising, Marketing

CARE2 is holding a webinar on strategies for successfully welcoming, cultivating, and converting new leads into donors. Holly Ross of NTEN will moderate a panel with Heidi Hess of Children’s Defense Fund and Greg Zelder of the California State Parks Foundation. They will review data about nonprofits’ speed and type of responses to newly acquired [...]

Tags: Email Marketing, Fundraising, Online Fundraising

The Nonprofit Times recently published an article called Is It Donor Management Software Or Business Intelligence.  It discusses what Laura Quinn calls the "movement from merely tracking data to an emphasis on using it strategically to make business decisions."  This vision of donor management software is nothing new.  I’ve heard countless organizations describe their donor [...]

Tags: Advancement Services, Donor Databases, Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin at Blackbaud has written an analysis of the CASE Online Fundraising Survey.  No surprise — he focuses on the high number of responses that said they "don’t know" or "don’t measure"  and cites the maxim "If you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it."  His analysis is at http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/connections/archive/2009/09/17/online-giving-trends-in-higher-education.aspx
 

Tags: Fundraising, Online Fundraising

Those of you who fundraise for educational institutions or are interested in how they’re raising money online should check out the results of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s 2009 survey on online giving (PDF).
Some highlights:
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Tags: Fundraising, Online Fundraising