I’m happy to announce that Crain’s Detroit Business has named us as one of 100 Cool Places to Work in their annual awards. This makes three straight years for us!

It’s not often you find someone that combines the knowledge and experience in providing measurable fundraising solutions and marketing expertise in a single individual. But we’ve found that in Austen Smith.

Study after study makes it clear that personalization is the reigning king of marketing. Organizations of all kinds are racing to develop the customer insights they need to single out individuals and create better, more personal user experiences. Non-profits can learn from these organizations and do the same to make their fundraising experiences more relevant to donors.

Our EVP of Marketing, Mark Gaskill, sat down with Sherri Welch from Crain’s Detroit Business for a Q&A on how nonprofits can strengthen relationships with donors to help recoup the loss of postponed or cancelled events because of the COVID-19 virus.  Mark’s recommendations:

COVID-19 and the quarantine are pushing us all to re-evaluate our fundraising efforts and find new ways to keep donors engaged. Trish Dewald, Executive Vice President Nonprofit Development for Phoenix Innovate and Jim Tedford, President and CEO of The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement discussed the issue via Zoom. Trish and Jim recommend that all fundraising organizations:

High-profile data breaches expose how vulnerable even organizations with sophisticated IT departments can be to attacks from outside. But you don’t have to be a large organization to be concerned about  data privacy.  Protecting data for nonprofits is just as important and can be especially risky when dealing with marketing vendors. 

We’ve seen the news that Congress passed the CARES Act and we all know there are some good provisions included for non-profit organizations. But what might not be immediately clear is – what we should DO with this information.

There is no question that all of us who work with museums and other cultural institutions with membership bases are in unchartered waters with the coronavirus and the economic uncertainty it is causing. Organizations are juggling countless priorities to make sure their staffs and volunteers are safe while struggling to make decisions around business continuity. What do you do about membership renewals when your museum, zoo, science center or theater is closed for an unknowable amount of time?    

There is no question that all of us who raise funds for animal welfare organizations are in unchartered waters with the coronavirus and the economic uncertainty it is causing. Organizations are juggling countless priorities to make sure their staffs and volunteers are safe and that the animals continue to receive optimal care. And, they are struggling to make decisions around business continuity, including fundraising plans. Events are being cancelled or postponed resulting in a significant loss of revenue.

There is no question that we, who work in the non-profit world, are in unchartered waters with the coronavirus and the economic uncertainty it is causing. We’ve heard over and over from clients that they are struggling to make decisions because the situation is changing minute by minute. 

When meeting with non-profit clients for the first time, I am often surprised by how many development officers are still talking about how much money they raised with their last fundraising appeal or event.