The NonProfit Times - August 15, 2008 - (Page 1) The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management • www.nptimes.com • $6.00 U.S. August 15, 2008 THE YEAR’S TOP STORIES Holiday Jeer Mailers preparing now to battle holiday season BY MICHELE DONOHUE S anta Claus might be the only jolly person this holiday season. Those involved with direct mail fundraising campaigns are feeling the heat this July as they gear up for the holiday mailing season.With an economic downturn, last year’s and this year’s postage hikes and a presidential election to contend with, direct mailers are planning on conservative campaigns this year. The American Lung Association (ALA) had a banner year with holiday mailings during 2007,according to Craig Finstad,assistant vice president of direct response operations for the New York-headquartered organization. ALA had experienced file erosion and decreased donations for several previous years. The ALA’s time-honored Christmas Seals tradition helps the campaign and more FUNDRAISERS Seeing the big picture generates dollars today and tomorrow The World’s Best F undraisers raise funds. It’s in the title. But great fundraisers are more than human automated teller machines. Raising the most money really isn’t the only measure of a great fundraiser. Overcoming obstacles and still breaking new ground for the future is just as important to an organization’s bottom line as today’s dollar. Editors of The NonProfit Times asked readers in multiple emails to more than 90,000 subscribers to NPT Weekly to nominate great fundraisers.Industry leaders were solicited and editors checked their own notebooks to find the nation’s unique development executives. In some cases, local programs were doing work that would be the envy of national programs. In other instances, some of the tried and true national industry giants were true to form. Will there be an argument regarding who made it and who didn’t? Absolutely.All of these types of illuminations are conversation starters.That’s the point. It’s the exchange of ideas that raises the level of everyone’s game. YOUNGER THAN 40 SARAH TANNER Getting Cash Free And Clear In some smaller communities, the local United Way functions as the community chest -- the fundraising arm of that town. But for United Way of Pioneer Valley, located in urban Springfield, Mass., being just a pass-through organization could very well mean obsolescence. “If you look at the United Way story, designations (gifts) don’t help us,” said Sarah Tanner, vice president of resource development at United Way of Pioneer Valley (UWPV).“And for many of (our donors), they don’t really understand how designating a gift was hurting…the longevity of United Way in our community.” Tanner, who joined UWPV during 2005, has since helped the charity reduce its designations from 36 percent to 32 percent, a significant drop for an organization and community that had long been familiar with directing dollars.“Anything we can do to get more unrestricted (gifts) is wonderful, and so, yes, it’s a very big drop for us,” said the 35-yearold.“We’d like to see it dropping further. Obviously, if we could be somewhere around 25 percent, that would be great.” Prior to joining UWPV, Tanner held positions with United Way chapters in Denver, New York City and nearby Hampshire County, first in marketing and later in campaigns.Tanner said she left UW of Hampshire County, located right up the road in Northampton, Mass., because of the growth opportunities available at UWPV.“I also saw a challenge here,” said Tanner. Once at UWPV, Tanner said she realized one of the challenges with lower- ing the number of restricted gifts is the notion that while donors want to have an impact, they also want to have a choice in where they effect that impact. Younger Than 40, Tanner, page 4 BRIAN COWART A Million New Donors,Sometimes One At A Time When St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital gets a new donor, Brian Cowart can claim that the person is one in a million. That’s because that’s how many new donors the hospital is now getting. The way Cowart describes it, he just sort of stumbled into the field of nonprofit fundraising and direct mail.“It’s not something I went to school for or had knowledge in,” he said.“Very few people come out and find their way into the direct mail/fundraising industry.” Cowart, 36, majored in commerce at the University of Virginia but there were no extensive courses or training in direct marketing.After some time in sales and marketing,he wound up at Response Media Products as a list manager. Before long Cowart joined CARE in Atlanta, primarily because of his direct marketing experience, but the list management experience didn’t hurt.“It just sort of evolved; it happens a lot in the industry, I think.” While he was director of direct marketing for five years at CARE, the relief agency routinely generated more than $60 million in public support annually before reaching the $100-million mark in 2003 and 2004. A native of Atlanta, Cowart relocated to Memphis when he joined St.Jude two years ago.As senior director of mail acquisition and donor retention,he’s responsible for acquiring and cultivating new donors through traditional direct marketing channels like mail and telemarketing.That means raising $240 million annually. He’s the primary source of new donors that funnel into the organization, which lately is running about a million new donors each year. Cowart is part of St.Jude’s national direct marketing division, the largest revenue generator for the children’s reYounger Than 40, Cowart, page 4 The American Lung Association (ALA) relies on their Christmas Seals to renew donors during the holiday season each year. than half of the organization’s revenue comes in the year’s fourth quarter. “Our file was built on Christmas Seals,” said Finstad of the decorated stamps that celebrated the organization’s 100th year last year. ALA faced a nearly 15-year decline in file size, gross revenue and net revenue before teaming up with Lexington, Mass.-based direct response agency Thompson Habib Denison (THD) in 2004. “We had a lot of winning tests that kept us at a pretty good level, where if we hadn’t implemented half a dozen new things we would have dropped by probably a couple of million dollars,” said Finstad.“We are always making adjustments and testing new things.” One element that hasn’t changed is the decision to stick with the Standard Mail Flats, which Finstad called “tried and true” for the ALA.The flats performed better than other forms tested, even with the substantial increases in postal rates. Flats have at least one dimension that is larger than standard letter-sized mail, but cannot exceed 15-inch length, 12-inch height or 3/4-inch thickness. The flats are still outperforming smallersized mailings in most testing, according to Holiday Jeer, page 8 http://www.nptimes.com
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