Fundraising Detective

Fundraising Round-Up

Here's my first round-up of 2012.  I hope your year has got off to a good start.  These posts are only from the start of the year, so if I missed anything over Christmas then do let me know.

I'm delighted to say that since the start of the month, I've been working with Pamela Grow to provide a monthly round-up for the SOFII monthly bulletin.  Why not sign up today?

Katya on the importance of metaphors.

Karen Zapp looks at the impact of colour in your direct mail.

Kevin on why innovation comes on top of your exisiting offers (not instead of).

Stuart Glen on a lovely thank you from Child's i - I also received a card and it was my favourite Christmas Card this year!

Your ears as moneymakers on the 101 Fundraising blog.

Aline on making your own luck.

Fired up Fundraising with some killer tips for thank you letters.

Kivi does some mystery shopping and gets some pleasing results (which makes a nice change!)

Donor Voice take an in-depth look at donor segmentation.

Jeff asks what donors want. Spoiler what they say and what they do are different things.

A direct marketer asks what businesses can learn from charity direct marketing.  HT Jeff Brooks.

Six great links on making presentations.

 

 

Final Fundraising Reading Round-Up of 2011

What better way to finish off the working year than with a final round-up of fundraising related links from the last couple of weeks... :)

Whatever you are doing this Christmas, have a wonderful time.

Thanks for reading and best wishes for a memorable 2012.

Kimberley with some wise words for thanking donors in small charities.

The Wild Woman interviews Jules Brown from the excellent Dear Joan blog.

Jeff on how your silos are killing your fundraising.  The Agitator also makes a plea to avoid them in this well argued post.

Margaux from Bluefrog reports from the London IoF Conference - sorry for not making you cry!

Kev on trying new ideas (complete with examples).

Katya with five strategic mistakes to avoid in 2012.

I loved this thank you Paul received from Send a Cow.

Sarah Clifton takes a fresh look at the donor pyramid and proposes a donor lifecycle map.

Barbara with 10 predictions for fundraising in 2012.

Freakonomics report on experiments in charitable giving.

Pell and Bales share 10 life lessons from one of their telephone callers.

Jeff opens a can of worms about innovation.  Lucy and the Agitator respond.

Sex, lies and the art of commanding attention - some great advice from Copyblogger on headline writing.

Eaon looks at the myth of influencers.

Fundraising Reading Round Up

Time for another round-up.  The year has flown by and this is likely to be the penultimate one of the year. Enjoy!

The Grant Garden on asking nicely.

Alison with a fundraising analogy about brazil nuts.

Mark with some more analysis and results from his mystery shopping exercise.

Jeff and Nancy both critique a stupid non-profit ad.

Karen with some thoughts on direct marketing trends in 2012.

Pamela Grow hosts this November's non-profit blog carnival on giving thanks.

Aline with some emergency fundraising appeals (past and present).

Derek on fundraising films.

Tom Ahern with a sure fire recipe for failure.

The Agitator with an in-depth look at donor commitment.

The Wild Woman looks at the anatomy of a successful annual appeal.

Katya gives a thumbs up to donors.

Dan Pallotta on jargon.

Weekend Fundraising Round-Up

Thanks to everyone who entered my competition to win tickets to this week's IoF London Conference.  Congratulations to Vasileios and Helen.  I'll be writing up some thoughts on the conference next week.

In the meantime, here are some of the articles that have caught my eye recently...

Kimberley goes for a walk in the mountains and meets a great fundraiser. 

Mark makes the case against the case for support.

Dear Joan on saying thank you.

Karen with some tips on thanking as well.

Aline on personalisation and showing donors love.

Kevin on effective fundraising and marketing.

Agents for Good stand up for donors.

Paul with a moo-ving Facebook campaign.

Beth with a case study on how the Humane Society of the US use their 1 million Facebook fans.

The Agitator asks if your donors would miss you?

A Twitter PR disaster from Quantas to learn from.  Articles by Eaon and Web Ink Now.

Fundraising Reading Round-Up

Time for another round-up of articles that have caught my eye lately. Enjoy.

I've enjoyed reading Blackbaud and Adrian Sargeant's report on growing philanthropy in the U.S.  It's been featured on a few blogs, but this comprehensive summary on the Agitator is my favourite.

Katya on the importance of focus and another great post on 7 surprising brain tricks you can use.

Stephen George with seven lessons from a door to door collection.

Alan Sharpe on direct mail v e-mail.

Paul on video and mobile.

101 Fundraising on measuring lifetime value.

Advice for Good on the growth of Movember.

Karen Zapp on fundraising silver bullets.

Pamela's one secret to winning foundation grants.

Jeff on when editing your copy makes it worse.

Kevin on charity fundraising and marketing truths (or not).  I'm currently reading Drayton's book on direct marketing, so enjoyed this.

Ask Direct have been doing some mystery shopping.  They'll announce the results soon, but this post gives you a taster...

Beth on Giving 2.0 and empowering your charity champions.

p.s. ten top tips for writing the perfect p.s. from Dear Joan.

Reading Round Up

I've a bumper round up this week featuring some of the best articles on the IFC conference and other interesting reads.

I'd also recommend taking a look at the Spring blog on giving through technology and the live blogging of the recent Like Minds event for the latest digital and social media inspiration.  Enjoy.

Last week saw the IFC conference in Holland and has resulted in a number of posts.  Here are some of my favourites:

Mark's five things.

Paul's thoughts.

101 Fundraising on legacy fundraising.

Lessons from AJ Leon via Paula at Stephen Thomas.

Plus a nice presentation from Stuart Glen (from the IoF Scotland Conference) with some great digital fundraising examples. HT Conor Byrne.

Kev asks if web problems are damaging your message?

The Agitator (with help from Seth) on making fundraising rice.

Beautiful World round up the latest technology news including geeky and exciting Google analytics news.

Are you Aline's ideal reader?

Fail, learn, leap from ifundraiser.

Katya on silence in fundraising.

Agents of Good on putting donors at the heart of the conversation from the start.

Alan Sharpe with a strong defence of direct mail.

Jeff on restraint.

Jonathon on committing to change.

Chris Brogan's 106 excuses that prevent you from ever becoming great.

 

 

Friday Reading Round-Up

Well, September is nearly over, so of course that means that Christmas appeals have already been signed off and the planning starts for 2012! 

Here's another round up of reading for you to enjoy this week.

Tom Ahern on avoiding infatuation with younger donors.

Aline gives us a 'nudge'.

Amanda asks if you can have too much of a good thing?

Paul with some comments on regular giving cancellations.

Rachel discusses the importance of instinct and improving what you already do (rather than constantly trying to innovate) in fundraising.

Media tart friend Beth Breeze talks about how donors choose charities in the Guardian.

Happy donors on the number one way to improve retention.

Beth on failure.

Katya on giving people a reason to join.

Jeff on the right way to integrate marketing and fundraising.

Lucy on why she loves Boden and what we can learn from their marketing.

Dan on leaving your mark as a fundraiser.

 

 

Weekend Reading Round-Up

It's time for another round-up of articles I've read recently.  Enjoy.

Direct debit cancellations seem to be going through the roof again in the UK, which is extremely worrying.  Mark looks at some ways to combat the problem.

Aline looks at how Charles Dickens used statistics in an appeal.

Four steps to secure a second direct mail gift.

Kivi with a great list of links to blog posts on quirky, kooky and off-beat charity marketing and fundraising.

Katya reports on a fascinating study on using bonuses (for yourself or others) to motivate people.

Peter Maple on legacies.

Agents of Good with ten ways to keep your donor at the heart of it all.

Jonathon with some interesting thoughts on using webinars and teleconferencing for donors.

Pamela with twelve tips for e-mail marketing.

Brock says charities need to get out the way of their stories.

Jeff on how branding can make your fundraising worse.

Beth shares the brilliant Charity:Water thank you videos, which they've produced for their fifth anniversary.

Why we desire but reject creative ideas.

This goes well with a post by Jeff on creativity.

101 Fundraising on corporate fundraising.

I liked this mind map for managing distraction.

Finally, I must get round to ordering Seth's new book/project, which is raising funds for the End Malaria project.  Seth shares his thoughts on premiums and the Agitator has some good points about how useful they really are.

Weekend Reading Round-Up

It was great to see Ken Burnett's latest blog on face to face fundraising receive good coverage and feedback.  I'm hoping to post some thoughts next week and I have enjoyed Amanda's and Jonathon's musings on their respective blogs.  Mark shows why it is so important,as he blogs about the rise in direct debit cancellations.

My main thought - which charity is going to take a risk and try some of these ideas?!

Elsewhere, here are some of the articles that have caught my eye recently...

Pamela Burk on donor centred thank you letters.

Karen Zapp on retention.

Kevin on why your audience is at the heart of your fundraising, communications and innovation.

Jeff on how to fry your file in fundraising.

Jonathon talks about the emotional and intellectual index.

Alison with some thoughts on what is important to donors.

Aline on the brilliance of George Smith's writings.

Marc on how to find new donors.

The Agitator on integration.

Stephen shares a great video on how to listen better.

Lucy continues her adventures in innovation series.

Hugh with some more thought on 'social objects'.

Drayton Bird on determination

Finally, here is a feel good story about a guy who shares his business profits with his community and gets back much more in return.

Weekend Reading Round-Up

It's been a strange old week in London.  I live less than half a mile from where some of the worse of the riots took place in Croydon (I could smell the smoke from our flat) and I went out to look at some of the devastation on an eerily quiet Tuesday night when there were hundreds of police on the streets.  It was a surreal sight.

Yet today, just a few days later the town centre is hustling and bustling like nothing happened.  However, it is going to take much longer for the small, family run businesses to recover from the looting and fires and it is those people I really feel for.

Whatever your views on the causes and solutions to the riots (and most of the analysis tends to massively oversimplify the issues), lets hope this weeks events were a once in a generation occurrence.

Anyway, what was meant to be a short introduction has turned into something longer, so without further ado, here is my fundraising reading round-up.

Why should someone support you?

Kev on 'computer says no' moments.  Something I've blogged about before as well.

The Agitator on what if we are wrong about relationship fundraising?

Jeff urges you not to make your writing too hard to read, even if your audience is educated.  As an aside, writing at the grade five or six level is really tough.  Have a go.  It requires real skill.  Jeff makes a similar point about beautiful design.

Love the latest Jerry Huntsinger tutorial on SOFII where he talks about mistakes.

Jen writes to Ms Nit Picker!

 Renier on making the 90 degree shift.

 "Attrition" and "Loyalty" in fundraising.

Put curiosity into your writing. 

Amanda with an interesting story about a donor who receives an 'upgrade' gift request and the emotions it provokes.

The Direct Mail Man shares a direct mail case study for a small charity doing it's first cold appeal.

Seth addresses the Heckler.

As a big Bruce Springsteen fan, I had to include this article on his creativity!