The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2008 - (Page 1) The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management • www.nptimes.com • $6.00 U.S. December 15, 2008 TOPSTORIES OF 2008 TheWorld’s Best Originally published 7/15/08 Originally published 7/15/08 Originally published 1/15/08 FUNDRAISERS Seeing the big picture generates dollars today and tomorrow EXCLUSIVE NPT RESEARCH EXCLUSIVE NPT RESEARCH F Web Triggers Direct Mail Response Benchmarking data Benchmarking data show huge increases show huge increases from three years ago from three years ago BY MARK HRYWNA cross virtually every demographics -- age, gender, race, income, education and household size -- more people are heading for the Internet before they make a charitable donation. And if you still think seniors are channel surfing for repeats of “Murder, She Wrote” instead of surfing the Web, you’d be wrong. According to a new The NonProfit Times study, twice as many potential donors are heading online after receiving a fundraising solicitation by mail than they did just three years ago, and among those 65 and older, the increases were even more substantial. The NonProfit Times engaged the Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) in Princeton, N.J., to repeat a study it performed three years ago for The NPT. ORC asked 1,000 people:“When you re- 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-year-old.“We’d like to see it dropping further. Obviously, if we could be somewhere around 25 percent, that would be great.” 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 Younger Than 40, Cowart, page 4 A Exclusive NPT Research, page 6 http://www.nptimes.com
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