Russ Reid, a pioneer in monthly giving and direct response television (DRTV), died Saturday, December 7 at his home in Sierra Madre, California. He was 82 years old.

Word of Russ’ death reached The Agitator via Tom Harrison, the chairman of the agency that Reid founded in 1964 and that still bears his name.

Tom’s call brought forth a flood of memories reminding us how much good in the world one, hard-driving, committed fundraiser can truly accomplish.

Russ started his company in Waco, Texas in 1964. By the time he sold it to the Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) in 1998 it had grown to be the largest fundraising agency in the world and its client roster read like a diverse ‘Who’s Who’ of major charities:

The American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Boy’s Town, World Vision, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Operation Smile, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Prison Fellowship, Habitat for Humanity, The Salvation Army, Nature Conservancy of Canada, and Rescue Missions and Food Banks all across North America.

Among Russ’s landmark innovations:

• The long-form television fundraising program.

The idea of showing the needs of children in Ethiopia for World Vision or the help for sick children at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital or the results of life-altering cleft lip surgery by Operation Smile has moved millions to become involved in these organizations.

A hallmark of these programs is powerful visuals of the real-life victims of poverty, disease or deformity, and the work the organizations do to bring relief to suffering and positive changes in the lives of the victims.

• A Model Format of Print/TV/Mail/Digital for Rescue Missions Across the U.S. and Canada.

Decades before ‘multi-channel, integrated marketing and fundraising’ became the buzz-phrase it is today, Russ was pioneering and developing it!

It all started in the mid-1980’s, with the Los Angeles Mission, a small homeless shelter in a run-down building on Los Angeles’ Skid Row.

The building was old, inadequate and unsafe. It needed to be retrofitted to protect it and the people it housed from earthquake damage – and the money just wasn’t available. For the first time a newspaper advertisement was placed in the Los Angeles Times asking for donations for the Mission.

People responded, and donated money to the Mission to help, clothe and house the homeless. A larger ad resulted in more new donors and a direct response fundraising program was born.

Over the next months and years, donors who responded to the initial advertisements were regularly contacted by mail to tell them how their support was helping serve those who come to the Mission for help getting off drugs, alcohol and the streets. These letters resulted in more donations, allowing the program to expand, build a new facility and help even more people.

This multi-channel program became the model to help hundreds of rescue missions and food banks across the US and Canada.

Survivors include his wife, Cathie, his children Mark Reid, Paul Reid, Anne Oppermann and Janis Reid, eight grandchildren, a grateful profession, and millions of lives his work touched and made so much better.

Thank you for everything, Russ.

Roger