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Dear Ohdeuk,
NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED
1. Mal Warwick Associates Launches New Website
We've just launched a new and improved version of our Website! The new site can be found at the same address: www.malwarwick.com, and it contains information about our agency's services as well as information on a variety of topics for nonprofit fundraising professionals. Past issues of our newsletter and articles on other relevant topics can be found in our Learning Resources section. Please visit the site today to see what we have to offer!
Visit our new Website
PRE-EMPTIVE RENEWALS
2. Pre-emptive Renewals
BY DANA HINES
Acquiring new members or donors is one of the biggest challenges in the fundraising world-and typically the most costly.
The second most difficult task may very well be getting these new supporters to renew their commitment for a second year. In fact, if first-year renewal rates are about half that of longer-term members and donors.
Read the full story
26TH ANNUAL IFC
3. The 26th International Fundraising Congress
Join Mal Warwick and hundreds of other leading fundraising practitioners at the world's premier fundraising conference. The 26th International Fundraising Congress (IFC) will take place October 17-20, 2006, near Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Rub elbows with the best in the business from more than 50 countries.
For the full program and booking information, go to www.resource-alliance.org.
Personal notes
4. Do personal notes make a difference?
BY MARC SLOOP
THIS QUERY COMES FROM Mike Lapham, who works at United for a Fair Economy (Boston MA), a national nonprofit concerned with the growing income and wealth divide in the U.S., as well as racial and economic inequality.
Mike likes to write a brief personal note on every annual membership appeal, which probably takes him a minute per letter. He has about 400 membership letters that go out. Recently, he did an experiment where he wrote personal notes on half the letters and nothing on the others. A great concept for a test!
Read the full story
TRACKING WAVES AND CURRENTS
5. Tracking the Waves and the Currents
BY DIRK RINKER
On the most simplistic level, donor behavior occurs as a reaction to some trigger event- a sort of cause-and-effect relationship. Though not a deep, psychological explanation, this is how donors (who rarely think deeply about their giving) see it and report it.
However, like an iceberg with 99% of its mass underwater, we know that behavior is influenced in ways that are not immediately visible. A recent survey my firm conducted among 3,000 lapsed and active donors shows they were very unlikely to view any event in their personal lives or in the world around them as causing a decrease in their giving behavior. Yet they were much more likely to say that not giving was triggered by their perceptions of a nonprofit.
Read the full story
ONLINE FUNDRAISING BENCHMARKS
6. Online fundraising benchmarks
BY MADELINE STANIONIS
Wondering how your online responses rates compare? If so, you'll be interested in the new "eNonprofit Benchmarks Study," the first detailed look at the hard numbers for nonprofits using the Web for fundraising and advocacy.
The good news: It's free! Download the report at www.e-benchmarksstudy.com.
The report studied 15 national nonprofits in the environmental aid sectors in depth, and surveyed another 85 organizations. Many of the results aren't surprising. For example, did you know that organizations with big e-mail lists raise more money online? Well, yes, of course. But the report also demonstrates that smaller organizations are meeting success through innovation and aggressive efforts.
Read the full story
TIPS & TIMESAVERS
7. Tips & Timesavers
"Most of us know we should listen carefully to everything our donors say, and most of us think we're great listeners. I doubt it. As a recovering interrupter, I know that great listening is not something that just happens. We have to work at it, and few of us know how to do that."
"Great listening also requires skill in asking quality questions, the questions that unlock the information we need in order to increase our donors' motivation to give and decrease or eliminate the obstacles preventing a joyful 'Yes.' Honing your skills in listening for intent and asking quality strategic questions will help take even the savviest practitioner to a higher level of success."
Thanks for this tip to consultant Karen Osborne, presented at the International Fundraising Congress. Send your own Tip or Timesaver by e-mail to mal@malwarwick.com, or mail to:
Mal Warwick's Newsletter
2550 Ninth Street, Suite 103,
Berkeley CA 94710-2516.
In return, we'll send you a free copy of Mal Warwick's Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3: Raise More Money with Direct Mail Tests (Jossey-Bass, 2003), an indispensable tool for direct mail fundraising.
WRITING A CREATIVE BRIEF
8. Writing a creative brief
BY TOM AHERN
Readers of this newsletter tend to be professional fundraisers, not advertising folk. So there's a good chance you're unaware of a profitable little trade secret called "writing a creative brief." (Brief as in "briefing." Brief as in "short," too.)
In advertising, the creative brief guides the efforts of writers and designers. It gets everyone on the same page (literally) and answers the questions:
-Why are we doing this?
-What are we trying to accomplish?
Read the full story
WHAT'S WORKING: MARKETING THE CONCEPT
9. What's Working: Marketing the Concept
Carrying through with a Marketing Concept-from the outer envelope to the reply envelope-should be a priority for every direct mail package. That said, how often do you actually see the Marketing Concept consistently presented in each component? Not often enough!
But in the case of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Foundation (Washington DC), the overall message-an invitation for the recipient to become a Founding Sponsor of a national memorial dedicated to Dr. King-rings clear throughout this thoughtful and well-written mailing.
Read the full story
INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH WITH A TWIST
10. Institutional approach with a twist
BY DEBORAH BLOCK AND PAUL KARPS
More often than not, when we're asked to write an acquisition package for a cultural group-a museum, theater, aquarium, or other such institution-the package tends to adopt a "what's-in-it-for-me" perspective. As in, what can the recipient expect to gain by sending money and becoming a Member.
This turns the focus on all the things the prospect can expect to see, participate in, and enjoy-whether that be special exhibitions, an exclusive event, workshops and classes, or a host of tangible goodies. Along, of course, with a rundown of the intangible benefits associated with giving to a good cause.
Read the full story
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Tell-a-friend!
Join Mal Warwick and hundreds of other leading fundraising practitioners at the world's premier fundraising conference. The 26th International Fundraising Congress (IFC) will take place October 17-20, 2006, near Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Rub elbows with the best in the business from more than 50 countries. For the full program and booking information, go to 