We are very pleased to announce the addition of pledge drive consulting to the ever-expanding CBA catalog of services being offered to our public broadcasting co-op members, with the addition of long-time public television pledge drive producer Mary Ann Donahue as our newest associate.

Mary Ann will work alongside CBA staff to professionalize and optimize stations’ on-air fundraising drives, with services that include:
• Scheduling of pledge drives
• Writing and editing of pledge break scripts
• Casting and directing pledge ‘talent’
• Projecting on-air revenue
• Producing on-air spots to support direct mail campaigns

Mary Ann is recognized as one of the leaders in pledge drive production and marketing in the system. She spent 20 years at Thirteen/WNET New York as Director of On-Air Production and is a multiple “On-Air Achievement” Development Award winner.  She is also one of the “Master Teachers” at PBS’ Pledge Academy. Mary Ann is also a four-time Emmy Award-winning producer and writer whose experience covers all aspects of entertainment media from Broadway to daytime television and feature films.

This exciting partnership with Mary Ann is just one way CBA is helping its station-partners by adding much-needed services in these tough economic times.

Ask your CBA account representative how to put Mary Ann’s expertise to work during your next pledge drive or how to plan a fully integrated campaign. Send an email to partnership@carlbloom.com or call us at 914-761-2800.

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy released the results of their annual survey of online fundraising this week.  While online fundraising continues to grow, that growth has slowed down a bit.  The magazine attributes this to the economy, although it also notes that online isn’t off as much as some more traditional methods of fundraising.  Other notable findings include:

• Despite its growth, the Internet still provides only a fraction of overall revenue — still in the low single-digits percentage-wise for most groups.
• Asking for low dollar amounts ($1 – $5) in order to get wide participation is working.  Although for some groups this has resulted in fewer, but larger, gifts.
• Stand alone emails — as opposed to those that are integrated with direct mail or some other channel — still aren’t doing well unless they include an urgent deadline.
• Rented lists still haven’t caught on, but “chaperoned” campaigns — where another group or company sending emails on behalf of a non-profit — work very well
• Personalizing campaigns — either through creative use of social networks like Facebook or by letting donors have their own fundraising pages and goals — also is very successful.

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The New York Times technology blog had an observation worth noting today.  It turns out the idea of a facebook isn’t all that new.

Bryan Benilous, a historical newspaper specialist at the digital-archive company Proquest, said he and his colleagues came across a Boston Daily Globe article from August 24, 1902, titled, “Face Book The New Fad,” describing a party game where revelers sketch out cartoony caricatures for fun.

“I think it is interesting to note the similarities with this first iteration of Face Book as a shared social experience,” said Mr. Benilous. “It’s almost like having friends write on your wall in a much less tech-savvy way.” (Read on …)

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