There are some interesting statistics available from Robin Goad on Hitwise regarding a recent RSPCA viral campaign. Simon's Cat creator Simon Tofield, released a new episode of his cartoon series on YouTube on December the 8th. But rather than being about Simon's cat, it was…

If your head has been turned by the success of Kiva and you are thinking about how your charity might set up a similar direct giving product you need to know about FORGE. FORGE was set up by Kjerstin Erickson, a Stanford University student, who…

This is an incredibly strong video from Oxfam about the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But, to my mind, it would have been better had it ended at 1 minute with a call to action. The opening scenes are so moving that it doesn't…

I’ve always made time to visit Leland Maschmeyer‘s blogs and was interested in a recent posting that referred to a comment made by Pierre Martineau, director of marketing for The Chicago Tribune in the 1950’s. He believed “the most important function of advertising isn’t to…

 books have been part of my office furniture since I first discovered his work on persuasion and compliance on a trip to the US. Much of his thinking went into developing the strategy behind the prospecting campaigns that Bluefrog implemented through Gift for organisations like…

The interweb is packed full of congratulations and celebrations over Barack Obama’s victory and it seems a pretty good time to have a look at some of the tools he used to win and see what lessons there are to learn for fundraising in the UK. There are…

For all the talk about great targeting and brilliant creative, to my mind, the single most important element that influences how much income we generate is the central idea around which the appeal is built. The Art Fund appeal for the Blue Rigi which won the best use of DM at the…

The Yougov research into giving to charity during the credit crunch that was undertaken in June and published in August provides a couple of intriguing insights into what people may or may not do in the upcoming recession. They may well be less likely to…

Some communications push and some pull. What do yours do? Push and pull are terms we coined at Bluefrog for describing different types of approaches to talking to donors. A pull communication is one that the donor enjoys receiving and engaging with. it generates a…

I’ve got to start somewhere, so I’ll ease my way into blogging with a little mythbusting. We’ve been involved in this over the past year or so as we look at testing some of the weird claims about direct marketing that you just aren’t sure…