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Weekly UpdatesWith a nearly worldwide recession, unless you live in North Dakota where there is nearly full employment and a state budget surplus, fundraising would not be high on most lists of preferred occupations. That would be true, unless you are one of the people in our annual look at the top professionals in the industry.
A recession is just another challenge to overcome, like when a donor says "no" to a $1 million ask but ends up giving the money anyway. Today's donor isn't exactly hiding but organizations do need to attract them through various means. A nice letter simply doesn't cut it anymore when trying to get a donor's attention.
This annual look at some of the most efficient and influential fundraisers is sure to start a few arguments. There are just 14 professionals highlighted. (There were 15 but the production department demanded an even number.) These are people who are not just very good at what they do, but they are also evangelizing so that others will learn. They are thought leaders and industry executives who live and breathe fundraising.
Big isn't always best and experience doesn't always count for anything. Some great work is being done on a small scale. National organizations are also experiencing some bright spots.
This year's installment covers mail, online and almost every other form of solicitation. We didn't forget, as these lists sometimes do, the leaders whose work allows others to be so effective.
Let the arguing begin. Here are The NPT's most influential and effective fundraisers for 2009.
Alfonce J. Brown Jr., ACFRE
Director of Development
National Minority AIDS Council
Washington, D.C.
There is no fundraising executive anywhere who has done more to promote diversity within the fundraising profession. He has and continues to mentor fundraisers who will broaden the pool of professionals and thus donors.
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Kelly Browning
Executive Vice President
American Institute For Cancer Research
Washington, D.C.
As chair of the Direct Marketing Association, Browning is leading the battle against the do-not-mail activists. Imagine not being able to send a fundraising letter. There are actually some nonprofits funding the attempts to establish such roadblocks.
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Brian Cowart
Senior Director Of Mail Acquisition
And Donor Retention
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis, Tenn.
Passionate, yet calm, he is constantly trying new things yet holding people accountable. St. Jude's direct response revenue is up in a very down market. He's the primary source of new donors that funnel into the organization, which lately is running about one million each year.
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Paulette V. Maehara
President & CEO
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Arlington, Va.
Let's start with the fact that she leads the largest organization of fundraisers on the planet. With Maehara, it's all about ethical behavior when it comes to dealing with donors and broadening the profession internationally so that more donors can be found.
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Bruce Makous
Vice President for Development
Multiple Sclerosis Association of America
Cherry Hill, N.J.
Makous believes that not doing acquisition is like placing a bomb in your donor database and that if other nonprofits are cutting back, it's the perfect time to acquire those donors. MSAA is on target to meet growth goals through an integrated campaign of mail, phone and Web to small and large donors, and is going hard after major and planned gifts.
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Angle Moore
Managing Director, CRM
American Cancer Society
Atlanta, Ca.
Moore is a leader when it comes to multi-channel fundraising. The ACS under her leadership has brought information about constituents to all phases of the process and has developed a program envied and most assuredly copied. She was first on the block to get it done.
Erich Fasnacht
Director of Marketing
Project HOPE
Millwood, Va.
Fasnacht is in love with both the big picture and the details and he knows multi-channel fundraising. Quiet and patient, ask him anything having to do with fundraising. He'll tell you what you need to know and without the BS.
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Larry Jones
Founder & CEO
Feed The Children
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Is there anyone better than this guy at raising money on television? Nope. When you combine IV appeals with a direct mail operation that simply won't let donors forget them, you know why a lot of kids are getting fed. He knows the money raised still isn't enough and lets donors know, via the sincerity of a pastor and subtlety of a sledgehammer.
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Kim Klein
Resident Resource Person
Institute in Management and Community
Development, Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Author of countless fundraising books and speaker par excellence, Klein knows how to raise money for the smallest organizations. Founder of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal in California, she is also a member of the Building Movement Project, working on understanding what should be privately funded and what should be paid for via taxes.
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Susan Loth
Director of Fundraising
Disabled American Veterans
Cold Spring, Ken.
Loth's challenge is the old boys network, the really old boys network. When most of your donors are "actuarially mature," it's time to find new revenue sources and Loth is doing just that and extremely efficiently. She's a national thought leader on direct response issues. She is helping to transform an aging membership organization for a new generation of veterans.
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Jim Morrison
Manager Of Donor Development
Marian Helpers/Marians of the Immaculate
Conception
Stockbridge, Ma.
You generally make a fundraising list for how much you bring in. In this case, it's how much didn't go out. Morrison last year made a few changes to the group's 120 mailings in three languages to 430,000 active members and saved $431,250 with more on the way.
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Jeff Regen
Vice President, Online Marketing
Defenders of Wildlife
Washington, D.C.
Regen is a leader among the progressive, Washington, D.C., nonprofit crowd. He showed simple can really work. DoW ran off an integrated campaign asking prospects to help choose the cover photo for its calendar. It generated 58,000 votes. He subsequently marketed to them the opportunity to buy the calendar and become members.
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Atul Tandon
Senior Vice President of Donor Engagement
World Vision
Federal Way, Wash.
Tandon has been at World Vision less than a decade and has transformed donor development in terms of size and level of staff and, most importantly, revenue. WV has enjoyed double-digit growth every year under his marketing leadership, which is especially challenging when you consider revenue is in the billion-dollar range.
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Jennifer Tierney
Marketing Director
Doctors Without Borders
New York, N.Y.
A strong proponent of getting donors to give through multiple vehicles, she has directed the organization's financial growth from $90 million for fiscal year 2005 to $125 million for fiscal year 2006 and more than $160 million for fiscal 2007.
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