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...