Report Says Charities’ E-Mail Is Unlikely to Sway Congress
Charities increasingly have been using e-mail as a way to try to get their messages into the hands of members of Congress. But a new report says electronic messages may not pay off as much as charities had hoped. The report, “Speaking Up in the Internet Age,” was published by OMB Watch, a…
By Debra E. Blum, Marilyn Dickey and Holly Hall
Phone Billing Option Offered to Encourage Donations
Some 150 charities are now offering donors the chance to give on line though donations that are charged to their telephone bills. The new service is designed to appeal to donors who are leery about giving out their credit-card account numbers over the Internet. Here’s how it works: After a donor…
By Debra E. Blum and Holly Hall
New Shopping Sites Benefit Charities
Charities may soon benefit from the billions of dollars consumers spend making purchases on line. Three new companies -- 4charity.com, Millennium Projects On Line, and Shop2Give -- have each introduced Web sites in recent months that allow users to shop on line and direct a portion of the price of…
By Debra E. Blum and Holly Hall
2 Fund-Raising Groups Denounce Commission Payments to Gift-Annuity Advisers
Two influential fund-raising groups have joined forces to discourage a national charity from paying commissions to financial advisers who help donors set up charitable gift annuities. The organizations say the practice is unethical -- and could lead state and federal regulators to impose new rules…
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Fund-raising drives win donors and volunteers with new tactics The robust economy has brought record gifts to many capital campaigns -- and that success has prompted a growing number of charities to run increasingly ambitious fund-raising drives. YOU CAN ALSO:Download a demonstration of the…
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Wildlife Conservation Society/New York Zoological Society
THE PHILANTHROPY 400 - No. 303
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Charity Finds That ‘Lift Notes’ Can Drag Down Direct-Mail Returns
Many charities tuck a short note in their appeals to describe a particular program or to reinforce the message of the solicitation. Such “lift notes,” as the inserts are called, are widely thought to help increase the number of people who send in a gift in response to the appeal. But lift notes,…
By Holly Hall
Contributor