These are the two most dangerous people

From Fundraising Success Magazine:

"[The] 57-year-old direct-marketing manager who works for a health charity [who] has been doing direct-mail fundraising for most of her career … and right now, she’s sitting in her chair asking herself, ‘Do I really have to figure out all of this Internet stuff before I retire?’ [The] 26-year-old account executive at a New York-based online agency [who] created his first Web site at 17 … and he’s sitting there saying, ‘Oh my God, this guy is going to talk about direct mail and I couldn’t care less.’ Together, these are the two most dangerous people in direct marketing today."

— OMP President Frank O’Brien in his keynote speech, "The Six Dynamics Shaping the Future of Fundraising," at last week’s 2008 New York Nonprofit Conference.

Why the Bridge Conference really impresses me

You have to be impressed with the 2008 Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference.
The award-wining event (which is being held this week in Washington, DC) has attracted more than 1,600 participants. The program guide boasts 14 separate tracks covering everything from direct response, major giving, marketing, creative, current issues, and many more. There are an unbelievable 75 sessions. They have more than 90 vendors in the exhibit hall.

...but wait, there's more.

They scheduled keynote speakers Jim Stovall and Lynn Price. They timed the DMAW MAXI Awards to be given out the night before. They've even set up their own LinkedIn Group, a Facebook Group, and a page on Twitter.

Don't forget... this was the conference that Beth Kanter's turned on it's head last year with her web 2.o coverage. Thanks to her trail blazing... the expected standard of online coverage for fundraising conferences will never be the same.

The Davos of Philanthropy

Peter Deitz, Founder of Social Actions, is covering the Council on Foundations Conference for Tactical Philanthropy.

"I find myself on the edges of what could easily be called the “Davos of Philanthropy.” Roughly three thousand attendees have flown in from across the globe to discuss the current and future states of global philanthropy."

You can read his first impressions here.

Jeff Brooks reacts to my critique of fundraising conferences

Last week, Jeff Brooks over at Donor Power Blog picked up my last column in the NonProfit Times about the current state of fundraising conferences.

Jeff offers his own critique of some nonprofit fundraising conferences:

"There's one main difference between the nightmarish climactic scene of a zombie movie and some of the conferences we fundraisers attend: The conferences use Powerpoint."

Thanks for expanding the discussion Jeff. I actually think there have been some positive developments in the past several weeks that shows progress toward making these important professional learning opportunities into the 21st century.

U.N. official discusses international philanthropy

Tom Watson posted some video on the News onPhilanthropy website.



Keynote speaker Dr. Robert C. Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning and Policy Coordination of the United Nations touched on international action around climate change and global health. at onPhilanthropy's fifth annual Summit onPhilanthropy in New York. More than 300 philanthropists, nonprofit executives, and foundation managers filled the Yale Club on March 11th, joining in a spirited day-long discussion on trends in giving and social ventures. The Summit is a yearly event for philanthropy leaders produced by onPhilanhropy.com, the media arm of international philanthropic services company Changing Our World, Inc.

Blackbaud blogs live from their own conference

Steve MacLaughlin, the Director of Internet Solutions at Blackbaud, offers some live blogging from the 2008 Team Approach User Forum on his blog, Connections.

I think live blogging from conferences is great. It offers fundraisers like myself a free opportunity to learn what's going on even when they aren't able to attend. I've previously posted that I was happy to see Team Approach uploading all the session PowerPoints online for anyone to review the information on their own... plus, as an added benefit, you don't need to endure any painful networking events where you need to meet a bunch of sales folks.

Looking at his blog, it seems like Mr. MacLaughlin's travel schedule is pretty hectic. In the past three weeks he has traveled in NTEN in New Orleans, AFP in San Diego, and this conference in Boston. Yikes!

Although, it must be difficult for an employee of Blackbaud's like Steve to write his honest opinions about session where Lee Gartley (President, Target Analytics and Target Software), Marc Chardon (CEO, Blackbaud), and Chuck Longfield (Target Founder and Blackbaud Chief Scientist) present.

His reviews of all the sessions are very positive. Hopefully, this blog will be a good reference in the future.

UPDATE 4/9/08: I guess I should have kept that more of a secret, it looks like access to the Target site is now restricted.

The Search For Sneezers

A reader emailed me this morning to say that I had forgotten to mention another interesting session for the AFP conference that dealt with social networking. An excerpt of her email is below:

Philip King, from Artez Interactive, gave a great presentation called “The Search For Sneezers,” about how organizations using social fundraising need to identify, motivate and care for their “sneezers” – the folks who are acting as fundraising hubs, bringing in first-time donors in huge numbers. Philip’s presentation pairs some excellent insights about technology with some of the theories about idea epidemics made famous in The Tipping Point. Very interesting stuff.

In case you missed the session, he’ll be reprising this presentation in a live webcast next Wednesday. Registration is free and it will be recorded: http://www.marketingpower.com/webcast457.php

Thanks for the tip.

Team Approach uploads conference PowerPoints

Maybe they listened to me...

Apparently, the nonprofit fundraising database, Team Approach is holding a conference in Massachusetts next week. One of DTTD's loyal readers is going and she sent me an email this afternoon claiming that the organizers have posted most of the presentations to their website in advance of the conference. Go here to check it out, it doesn't appear like you need to be registered for Team Approach User Forum 2008 to download PowerPoints.

For those of you that might not know, earlier this week I called on fundraising conference organizers to start taking advantage of the power of the web for these events:

Finally, I challenge organizers to use the untapped potential of technology in more conference planning and follow-up. I know I’m a little biased, but why aren’t more bloggers given media credentials to cover events in real time? Why aren’t all those PowerPoint slideshows archived electronically for attendees to read prior to (and after) each conference? Why don’t we encourage the Direct Marketing Association, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Council For Advancement and Support of Education and the Nonprofit Technology Network to use upload video and audio from presentations?

I probably can't take full credit... because if I would have known people listened to what I write, I might have asked for something more dramatic...

UPDATE 4/9/08: I guess I should have kept that more of a secret, it looks like access to the Target site is now restricted.

The Agitator's take on the AFP conference

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone is offering on my most recent column for the NonProfit Times. I really didn't think it was a Jerry Maguire moment when I wrote it. I just get sick and tired of fundraisers who go to conferences unprepared - wasting time and money - without getting anything out of the experience. I think it can (and should) be better... so I said so.

Roger Craver had a great way of describing the AFP on his Agitator blog. Because I know that blog takes a long time to load, I wanted to clip a portion of his well written post below:

The annual migration in our trade is underway. The Association of Fundraising Professionals opened its annual conference yesterday in San Diego. Consultants wooing clients, printers, envelope salespeople, new media application service providers ... all there wooing everyone in sight, along with 1/3 of the attendees looking for new jobs and wearing their best smiles.

Unfortunately, I can't be there observing us all in our natural habitat. But I do want to send this note to loyal Agitator readers who are opening this morning's edition over coffee in their rooms, ploughing through The Conference Program wondering what sessions they should attend today or whether they should just go to Sea World. (By the way, Sea World has a terrific website and is a good place to visit!)

There's a wide offering in the AFP Conference Program. From the conventional to the important to the inane. What strikes me by its absence is there's very, very little about what will matter most in effective fundraising in the years to come: social networking advances thanks to technology.

Excellent. Roger goes on to name some of the names that DID speak - Mark Rovner, Nick Allen, and Nicci Noble - all three excellent speakers for nonprofit fundraisers to learn from.

AFP live blogging & my new NPT column

I would be amiss if I didn't mention that Reed over at the Association of Fundraising Professionals set up a neat blog for this year's AFP Conference in San Diego.

I should also point out that the Chronicle of Philanthropy also has a new blog, named Prospecting, which has been cranking out some decent coverage of sessions from the AFP events.

But, perhaps most important... my new column has been published over the NonProfit Times web exclusive section. The title this month is, "An Honest Critique Of The Fundraising Conference Circuit." I think many of you who are in San Diego now can relate.

Go here to read the entire article now... especially my money quote:

To put it bluntly, conferences suffer when organizers allow uninspired speakers to present stale content to disengaged attendees.

...oh yeah, and you should also take note of the fact that the NPT placed my article above Eleanor Cliff's new column.

Congressman to attend nonprofit conference

A reader just forwarded me an email that Representative Robin Hayes (R-NC) co-chair of the House Philanthropy Caucus will be attending an event organized by the Nonprofit Federation of the DMA on April 9th.

The organization is hosting the 2008 Critical Issues Impacting Nonprofits & Fundraising conference in Washington, DC. They also advertise "nonprofit legal luminaries" including:

* Errol Copilevitz of Copilevitz & Canter, LLC
* Jack B. Siegel of Charity Governance Consulting LLC (and blogger)
* Chip Watkins of Chamberlain & Bean

Also in the line-up: Jerry Lease from the US Postal Service, Evelyn Brody of Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology and our co-chairs Geoff Peters and Charlie Nave. The full day conference plans to cover everything from how to complete the new Form 990 to what is lurking in state legislatures.

If you live want to see the agenda, go here.

NTEN Conference kicks off in New Orleans

More than 1,000 of the cool cats in the country are descending on New Orleans for the 2008 Nonprofit Techology Conference hosted by NTEN over the next couple days.

David Pogue, the personal technology columnist for the New York Times will be speaking at the plenary session at 8:30am... although given some of the festivities on Wednesday night, I doubt that all of the attendees are going to drag their butts to that event on time.

Beth Kanter was one of a couple dozen honored colleagues to be recognized by NTEN at the member's luncheon. Her award was "Most likely to have an account on every social networking site."

Nancy Schwartz has already posted to her Getting Attention blog that she is thrilled with the focus on how attendees can make connections with other nonprofit fundraisers and marketers.

They even have an official widget to track updates from the conference and they have a cool syndication feature for blogs that post to their own sites with the tag 08NTC.

I think she's talking about me...

It turns out that asking a consultant to go to a conference and report back on their findings is a shitty way to collect content for a blog... and alas, it looks like I was called out on it.

"I don’t have a blog — yet — but if I did, I sure as hell would be blogging about the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s annual conference that took place in D.C. last week. I mean, come on, these conferences are chock-full of useful information — not to mention juicy gossip and ‘celeb’-fundraiser sightings. But here it is, four days after the close of the conference, and the only thing I see on the blogs is one blogger’s promise to post guest blogs from someone in attendance … but no follow-up. Weird."­

— (Not really) posted Jan. 29 by FundRaising Success Editor-in-Chief Margaret Battistelli on her imaginary "I Don’t Have A Blog Yet" blog.

2008 Annual Washington Nonprofit Conference

There is a big nonprofit fundraising conference going on in Washington, DC this week which is run by the Direct Marketing Association's Nonprofit Federation.

I've been told they have about 800 people there this year... and while I'd love to be there blogging about the education conferences and gossip from the various networking events, it's not going to happen.

So, in my place I asked a dear friend, who I will call "a consultant" to send me emails from the inner working's of the festivities in Washington. Here is what my source sent me:

Hi Fundraiser, Greetings from the conference! The escalators don't work at the hotel, so getting between floors is a pain-in-the-butt, but not as much of a pain as schmoozing with clients, former co-workers, and vendors. There is an interesting panel being held this morning moderated by Senny Boone, Esq., Vice President, Special Counsel & Executive Director, DMA Nonprofit Federation. She is going to have some impressive panelists, including:

Carolyn A. Emigh, Principal, Nonprofit Service Group
Charles Nave, Esq., President, Charles H. Nave, P.C.
Geoffrey W. Peters, President, CDR Fundraising Group
Robert S. Tigner, Regulatory Counsel, DMA Nonprofit Federation

I'll keep you posted on what I see, hear, and learn from the events.

As a note to the rest of my readers, if you have tips, stories, and reactions to the conference in DC or to any conferences you've been to recently, please send them along.

More blog coverage of Bridge Conference

Rosetta Thurman runs an awesome fundraising blog called Perspectives From the Pipeline. Be sure to check out her insights from sessions she attended. She offers great reactions (both positive and negative).

Karen Taggart from Care2 also blogged from the conference about old and new friends.

Beth's presentation

If you weren't able to sit it in person, here is a copy of Beth Kanter's presentation from the 2007 Bridge Conference on her website.

One of these days, we might even be able to even replace the physical conferences put on by DMA or AFP and learn from each other in a totally virtual world. Think of it... we could do the entire thing in Second Life and save our donors the cost of travel back and forth.

Updates from 2007 Bridge Conference

I don't purport to be a journalist. I will leave the real reporting on fundraising to people like Abny Santicola, Stephanie Strom, Paul Clolery, Peter Panepento, and Ian Wilheim.

In fact, I wouldn't even say I qualify as a pundit either since I post under the anonymous online persona of "a fundraiser." The closest description that fits is that of a cultural observer for the nonprofit fundraising community. Who am I kidding? I'm a blogger.

With two days down at the 2007 Bridge Conference, I'm amazed (as always) by the number of quality cases studies shared by a variety of nonprofit groups. Rarely do the presentations offer concrete tactical suggestions, but almost all provide at least one fresh idea to approach the threats, opportunities, and challenges facing the industry today.

More than once today I heard a speaker mention his or her delight that so many colleagues are willing to share the details of both their successes AND failures. Several popular sessions today were packed wall-to-wall. Mal Warwick's "Copy Clinic" session was insane - with over a dozen people turned away after standing room filled up. The Resource Alliance put on some "world class" sessions.

While there is a repetitive nature to so many PowerPoint presentations, my real complaint of the day had to be the evaluation forms. Attendees are asked to answer questions with a 1 to 5 rating without any idea of which is considered the top grade. The form also asks open ended questions like "How much do you anticipate that this session will help you achieve your goals in your work?" and then offers limiting choices such as: "agree" or "disagree." I can't help but think the evaluations will provide little or no value.

Day Three offers many interesting sessions including: Holly Hall from NTEN, Harvey McKinnon on monthly giving, Nick Allen, Beth Kanter from Beth's Blog, and Laura Quinn from Catalist.

The exhibition hall

There are 107 companies in the exhibition hall. From the gossip I hear, many vendors felt that last year the Bridge Conference did a poor job of encouraging attendees to stop by and talk to vendors.

I can understand the point. The companies pay a decent amount of money to set-up a display for the two day conference. To leave without a decent list of leads would be a huge waste of time & money.

However, I'm afraid they may have over compensated this year. First of all, there is more than an hour and a half between each of the three breakout sessions. Granted, the breaks are billed as lunch and dessert breaks - but they are served (where else) in the exhibit hall - and are 90 minutes each!

As if there isn't enough time already devoted to networking and hospitality. My suggestion would be to have four sessions each day - that way there wouldn't be so many different tracks going on at the same time.

Opening Plenary Session

I guess opening plenary sessions at fundraising conferences are usually more about setting a mood than providing detailed practical information. Today's speaker, Anthony Tony Elischer, did both. It's a shame that only a fraction of the 1300 registrants for the conference attended.

Tony shared trends, observations, and predictions while also challenging fundraisers to take bold risks. He also shared this video (below) by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.



I've never seen or heard a better description of why Web 2.0 matters.