A gift of nothing...

I wanted to say a special thank you to 'Agents of Good', a brilliant group of fundraisers whom I am fortunate enough to work with. This year instead of sending a gift basket or a box of chocolates, they sent the gift of nothing - and by nothing I mean possibly the best gift of all.

Instead of sending client gifts this year, they provided toys for children at a home for disabled children in Uganda. You can find photos and additional information on the Agents of Good blog.

Thank you John, Jen and Mark for your awesome gift, and a reminder of what is really important this holiday season. Have a wonderful Christmas, and I look forward to working with you more in 2010.

Tis the season...for gift catalogues!

I LOVE Gift Catalogues. I think they are a fantastic way of honoring your loved ones while improving the lives of people around the world. The truth is, most people on your gift list probably don't need, or even want, anything for Christmas. According to a poll conducted for World Vision by Ipsos Read in 2007, 8 out of 10 Canadians said they didn't need anything, and eighty-four per cent agreed that they would prefer to receive a meaningful gift that would help someone else, rather than a traditional gift like a pair of socks or a sweater.

For this reason, our mailboxes are being flooded with stacks of catalogues for all kinds of different organizations. You can buy a pig, goat, cow and even an alpaca for your friends; you can pay back that brother that always picked on you with a latrine; or you can honour the teacher in your life by providing school uniforms or school supplies for a child in a developing country. If there is someone in your life who loves the outdoors you can adopt a piece of land or an endangered species. Or you can help out at home, by providing gifts for the homeless or toys for children spending Christmas at the hospital. There are so many special gifts you can give that will really make a difference this Christmas - and I think its brilliant!

As a fundraisers though, we need to ask 'what next'? We know that gift catalogues can acquire new donors with a very high efficiency rate. Realistically though, this group are better classified as catalog buyers than donors. As someone who has purchased from a variety of gift catalogues I am regularly thrown into the direct mail stream but catalogue buyers cannot be cultivated in the same way as your traditional dm donors.

How have you manged to turn catalogue donors into committed donors? Have you found away to get a second gift? Or better yet, have you been successful in converting these donors into monthly givers?

Oh - and one more thing. If your still looking for a gift for the person who has everything - here are the links to three of my favourite gift catalogues...

World Vision Canada

Operation Eyesight

WWF

The day after...

After two and a half days packed with brilliant speakers, inspiring sessions and lots of great opportunities for relationship building, AFP congress has come to an end. Despite the fact I returned to an abundance of messages in my inbox and a 'to-do' list that seems to have no end, I wanted to take a few minutes and reflect on some of the things I took out of the last three days. Here are the 5 most valuable things that I learned at congress:

1. Don't use statistics - they are truly a waste of space. Focus instead on your case for support. This is what will inspire people to give you money and support your cause.

2. STOP evaluating charities based on their admin costs or costs of fundraising. These are efficiency measures, NOT effectiveness measures. Non-profits should be measured based on their impact. And please take the pie charts out of your donor communications because it is only perpetuating the problem.

3. Get to the roots of your story and make it about a beneficiary, NOT your mission statement. Tell stories in all your communications: print, phone, DM, it doesn't matter.

4. They secret to raising more money is to spend more money. You have to be willing to take risks, which will also mean making mistakes. The most successful organizations have made loads of mistakes but by doing so have found things that really work.

5. Stop talking about your charity! Talk about your cause. Spend your time talking about the reason why people support you... I guarantee it has very little to do with you, and a lot to do with the people/animals/environment you serve.

Hats of to Mark and the rest of the team for a remarkable three days. I'm thrilled I was able to be a part of it.