Make It Weird – 3 Ways to Make Your OE Stand Out
One of the joys of the longer days and warmer temperatures that come with Spring is shifting the post-dinner activity in our house from puzzles or colouring to a daily walk to the mailbox. (Don’t worry, the colouring still happens and I have 50 Paw Patrol and Pokémon masterpieces on my fridge to prove it!) […]
Direct Mail Fundraising in 2024 – What the Benchmarks Tell Us
We know you’ve been patiently waiting, and it’s finally here – the 2024 Canadian Direct Mail Benchmarks Report is now ready for you to download and discover! The Cole’s Notes, you ask? TLDR: This year’s benchmarks are relatively flat, with minor swings up or down for the majority of indicators. Direct mail fundraisers, you’ve weathered the […]
Testing for fundraising campaigns: How to get results you can rely on
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in my 10+ years working in the charitable sector, it is: You are not your donor. It can be a hard truth, I know! But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I like, what you like, or what your CEO likes; it matters what […]
Reflecting on 20 years of legacy fundraising at Good Works
I remember my ‘aha moment’ like it was yesterday. I was at a CAGP event at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. It was June of 2002, and I was listening to a presentation by Ken Ramsay – one of the early experts in Canadian planned giving. As Ken was encouraging the charity fundraisers in the […]
Direct Mail Production: What Will it Cost this Busy Season?
It has been a little while since I last reported on the state of direct mail production. In that time, direct mail has continued to endure a host of challenges: COVID-19, supply chain issues, labour and resource shortages, natural disasters, rising fuel prices, inflation, paper producer strikes, and paper mill closures – to name a […]
Why Do Benchmarks Matter to YOU?
Soon my fellow Good Workers and I will be releasing this year’s Canadian Direct Mail Benchmarks Report. As I was looking a draft of the report, two questions came to mind: Why are benchmarks important in the first place? Do fundraisers like you and me use benchmarks as much as we could (and should)? Today, […]
New Year Resolutions for Fundraisers in 2022
Ok, I realize I’m a little late to the game in sharing resolutions for 2022, but one of MY resolutions was to be a bit more “chill” this year (as my husband would put it). So instead of stressing about my resolution-sharing-tardiness, I’m going to dedicate this post to the fundraisers who are still recovering […]
How To Analyze Your Direct Mail Performance in 2021
So, how did your direct mail program do this year? That’s the question that’s on every mail fundraiser’s mind as we head into the final stretch of year-end. Gifts are being processed, cheques are being opened, digital campaigns are being scheduled – and through it all, we’re watching to see: Will we hit our targets […]
A 7-point guide to kick-starting your mid-level program!
If like me you’ve been a fundraiser for a while, you’ve heard mid-level donor and mid-level giving program come up a few times in the last few years. But there is so much information out there, how do you make sense of it all? Fear not! My hard-won, 7-step guide to kick-starting your mid-level program […]
Storytelling in Fundraising: A Guide for Skeptics
It may surprise you, but there are professionals in the charitable sector who think using a storytelling approach in fundraising is a bunch of gobbledygook. Are you clutching your pearls? That was my reaction, too. A few years back someone from an unnamed charity told me that they don’t use stories because they didn’t want […]