In his early years, Carl was not yet a proponent of Integrated Marketing.

Although he didn’t know it at the time, young Carl Bloom (click on photo at right to view full size) had already started his direct marketing career while on strike with his family against the Western Union Telegraph Company. Back then he was telling people to “write” instead of “wire” in this Daily News photo.

While sending a telegram is now obsolete (even though Carl can’t take all the credit), Carl Bloom Associates now specializes in Integrated Marketing using every available communications channel to talk to your members and supporters – including email, the Internet, telemarketing and, yes, even writing a letter.

For a fresh look at how your organization could improve acquisition and retention of its individual donors, give us a call at 914-468-8942 or send an email to partnership@carlbloom.com.

Last week at the combined DMAW/AFP-DC “Bridge” conference, I presented on how non-profits that rebrand themselves — changing their names or logos — can best continue to raise funds from their existing supporters and prospects by avoiding the confusion the new brand can create.  This is a topic you’ve heard us talk about on this blog before both here and here.

Abny Santicola, Managing Editor of Fundraising Success magazine (and website) took the opportunity to discuss the issue with me after the presentation and she video taped it!  It’s posted for your viewing enjoyment on their website.

I recently (January 28, 09) listened in on a “Brown Bag Phone Meeting entitled Fundraising in Challenging Economic Times,” a discussion about fundraising in these difficult times. Our own Luke Vander Linden was one of the presenters. I thought it was productive and useful to PBS stations.

However, I just wanted to express a difference in opinion with one point made during the session.

If memory serves me, there was a comment in response to a question, that in effect, said that the best direct mail packages are the cheapest ones and that letters are just letters, and so, when writing to someone (donors) the best letter is one that is most inexpensive to produce. (Read on …)

Let’s kick the New Year off right!  The year 2009 promises to be a tough economic time, but it will be manageable for the non-profit world if we keep our cool, use our imagination and apply some common sense rules to doing business.  And we may have to try some new and alternative techniques in our fundraising programs.

Here are 9 suggestions for making it through the financial thicket. We’d appreciate hearing some of your suggestions and thoughts right here on “CBA Talk.”  Perhaps we can come up with 99 more ideas for an even better 2009.

1. Don’t panic (Read on …)

The true philanthropic nature of our fellow Americans can never be overestimated.  This quick bit from “Philanthropy Journal’s” website shows the intersection of holiday gift giving and fundraising from a survey by Harris Interactive for World Vision:

Though the economic slump has prompted many would-be holiday shoppers to scale back, it also has encouraged them to make their gifts more meaningful, says a new survey.

More than seven in 10 people surveyed said they plan to spend less on holiday presents this year, while about half said they were more likely to give a charitable gift as a holiday present.

On the receiving end, more than eight in 10 adults said they preferred to get a gift that could help someone in need, as opposed to a traditional gift like clothing or electronics.

“These results underscore our altruistic American culture of giving back,”

Justin Greeves, senior vice president of public affairs and policy research at Harris Interactive, says in a statement. “This generosity may surprise some, but shows why it truly ‘tis better to give than to receive.’”

(Read on …)

Companies we partner with often send us interesting articles and reports to read. We recently received a link to an article published on Knowledge@Wharton, the online business journal for the Wharton School, from Dennis Lacognata from Prompt Mailers. The article is published here. Thanks Dennis.

The article discusses advertising during recessions. Here’s an exerpt:

Research shows that companies that consistently advertise even during recessions perform better in the long run. A McGraw-Hill Research study looking at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985 found that those businesses which chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981 and 1982 recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered. Specifically, companies that advertised aggressively during the recession had sales 256% higher than those that did not continue to advertise.

For companies that do stay the course and continue to advertise into a recession or increase their promotional activities, the key is to craft messages that reflect the times and describe how their product or service benefits the consumer. For example, companies might be tempted to emphasize price in a recession, but that only works for companies like Costco and Walmart that are built around a core strategy of providing low prices year after year, says Lodish. He points to the current Walmart campaign, “Save Money. Live Better,” as a successful approach to the recession.

Dean Jarrett, senior vice president of marketing at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., which developed the Walmart ads, acknowledges the campaign began in 2007 before it was clear a harsh recession was building. “We can’t claim we knew a recession was coming, but “Save Money. Live Better” is dead on-point with who they are and what they want to be.”

The article echoes our stance on fundraising during the economic downturn. If organizations cut spending when it comes to acquisition, they’ll have a harder time making up for that later on down the line.

Stay the course.