Award-Winning Blog


8 Biggest Email Mistakes

Our subject line today is the model of perfection … according to online marketing firm Marketo. Why? It’s clear and direct … not clever. ‘Unclear subject lines’ is the first of eight biggest email mistakes marketers make according to Marketo in this white paper. They cite a case study reporting that clear subject lines received 541% […]

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It’s audience, not channel

The problem begins, as usual, in a spreadsheet. You must budget direct marketing and your board will not accept something with three lines: revenue, expenses, and net.  How then to split your marketing programs? Naturally, you do this by channel, since that’s how you’ll be spending money. A rational decision spurs irrational implications of thinking of […]

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Tragic Windfall?

Is there such a thing? Or just an oxymoron? I’m thinking about the first Trump budget. Here is a ‘plan’ that would rip to shreds our social safety net; our commitment to affordable, accessible health care; and our protection of the environment, food safety and much more that we expect from government. While enlarging tax […]

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No One Wants More Email

That’s just one of the basic premises of our new book Start Over explores. The problem with getting the manuscript off to the publisher is that new research findings keep coming in. So, another chapter or two have to be re-written. Let me explain. In preparing my earlier book, Retention Fundraising: the art and science of keeping your donors […]

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One In Five Of You Will Leave

I’m thinking about this recent article in NonProfitPRO — Does the Nonprofit Industry Have an Employment Problem? — by Tracy Vanderneck. Tracy cites two reports, one a cross-industry study and one focused on nonprofits, which converge on the exact same number regarding average annual employee turn over. It appears that nonprofits hold onto staff at […]

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How To Organize For Miracles

“Craver, it’s perfectly fine to believe in miracles, but let me tell you, it sure helps to organize for them.” With those words my first fundraising mentor left me with an indelible understanding that while great things can and do happen, the probability of success increases markedly with careful and meticulous planning. Which brings me to […]

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