Along with Damian O'Broin of the rather good Irish fundraising agency, Ask Direct, I presented some findings taken from a massive international mystery shopping exercise (270 charities in six countries) at IOF London yesterday. I'm going to post the full presentation online, but I thought…

How to win friends and influence people was one of the first self-help books ever published. Written by Dale Carnegie in 1936, it has been constantly in print and sold millions of copies world-wide. I don't know if Dale ever turned his hand to fundraising,…

Charities spend a huge amount of money and time on creating appeal packs but the most important part of the relationship building process – the acknowledgement – is often little more than an afterthought. If you think your own set of thank you letters might…

If you feel a little thirsty next time you're in Japan and decide to make a trip to your nearest vending machine for a refreshing beverage, you'll find more than a few cans of Coke on offer. You'll also be able to support the Japanese…

Having analysed the results for a number of appeals and spoken to fundraisers from throughout the sector, it looks like we are suffering from a royal wedding DM hangover. Fundraising campaigns that were mailed in the run up to Easter or shortly after the wedding…

This is a photograph of Shanon Doolittle's magic drawer. As you'll see, it's packed full of cards – greeting cards, thank you cards, anniversary cards – every sort of card that might be useful to show a donor that you appreciate their support. Of course,…

Following from last week's post on mobile giving in the UK, I thought it might be useful to share this rather good presentation from US digital agency, space150 on broader trends in mobile use. Mobile Trends – June 2011 – Trending The Future View more…

I'm rather impressed by the Follow the Money Twitter app created in response to the allegation that The News of the World was involved in hacking Milly Dowler's voice mail account. You can read more about it in Melissa Harrison's article in The Guardian, Why…

When you are committed to a cause it's easy to think that the only reason other people don't feel the same is that they don't understand. Your reaction might be to bombard them with evidence – facts, figures, statistics  – anything that supports your position….