Here’s what some of our clients have been up to recently:

• The vital mission of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has been front and center lately, as families welcomed home the three Cleveland women held in captivity for ten years. This kind of recovery offers hope to the families who are still searching, that their own children will one day come home. On May 7, NCMEC celebrated this important message of hope by honoring Jaycee Dugard and her family at the 2013 Hope Awards. The Dugards were reunited in 2009 after Jaycee was abducted 18 years before. A reminder that National Missing Children’s Day is May 25, so please visit NCMEC’s website to find out how you can help keep kids safer. 

   Photo taken at the 2013 Hope Awards: (from left) Amy Padre, Amelia Stanley, and Kristen Shank Finn.

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Recently, Allison Porter, Dara Igersheim, and I attended the 2013 American Museum Membership Conference (AMMC) in Atlanta, which draws museum staff from all over the country, and from varying sizes of museums, for a packed agenda on all facets of membership.

One of the areas discussed at this year’s conference was how, as membership professionals, we are also customer service professionals, seeking to acquire, engage, and retain our customers/members/donors – something arts organizations, in particular, do well.

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Here’s what some of Avalon’s clients have been up to lately:

National Parks Conservation Association President Tom Kiernan applauded President Obama this spring for using the Antiquities Act to name three new National Monuments. Not only do these new monuments provide thousands of acres of open space for everyone to enjoy, but the monuments also honor prominent figures in American history.

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Here’s a wrap-up of what some of Avalon’s clients have been up to lately:

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One of the puzzles that keeps us all guessing in the field of nonprofit fundraising is what it is that motivates donors to give. Long or short letter? Benefits? Envelope teasers? Institutional messaging? Unfortunately, as we all know, the only way to find out is through consistent, ongoing testing.

Any marketer who’s tried guessing which test will outperform the control, knows that in reality, no one can say every time what motivates donors. Not even donors! But we can make some educated guesses, especially when it comes to arts donors.

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Here’s a report on what some of Avalon’s clients have been up to so far this year.

Also, two clients have reached big milestones this year: the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice marks its 40th anniversary in 2013, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force celebrates its 25th anniversary – stay tuned for more on these vital organizations’ anniversary-year plans.

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Avalon clients have been busy making news, so we have lots to cover:

• In the wake of the horrific shootings in Newtown, Connecticut in December, we’re proud that three lawmakers with whom we work closely have quickly stepped forward to address the gun control issue. Just days after the tragedy, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) announced that he will introduce legislation early this year to ban high-capacity magazines, like the type used in the tragedy. More recently, on the two-year anniversary of the Tucson shooting that gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Sen. Lautenberg called on Vice President Biden’s Gun Violence Task Force to include his commonsense gun safety solutions in its recommendations. For more details on the Lautenberg bill, see the recent article in the Huffington Post. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) spoke passionately on the Senate floor, calling for a national conversation on how we can better protect our children from gun violence. You can read Sen. Cardin’s compelling speech here. On the U.S. House side, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) has been tapped to serve as a Vice Chair of a new congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force that will look into measures Congress can take to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings like the Sandy Hook attack.

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As always, our clients are busy and making news:

• Avalon extends heartfelt congratulations to newly re-elected U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and U.S. Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA 14).  It was such a pleasure to work with these dedicated public servants and their tireless campaign staffs during the election cycle.  We are gratified that they will return to Congress in January to continue moving the country forward under President Obama’s strong leadership.

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October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and National Breast Cancer Coalition President Fran Visco is highlighting NBCC’s goal of ending the disease by January 2020, and calling on President Obama and Mitt Romney to do their part to help reach that goal. "We want and expect that every person who holds the office of President of the United States will combine leadership with vision,” says Visco in a recent blog post on Huffington Post. “That she or he will be someone who knows the limitations of what is and imagines what can be—and then makes it happen…We must create an innovative environment for breast cancer research that will lead us toward the eradication of the disease." Read Visco’s full blog and also learn the concrete steps you can take this month to help end breast cancer.

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As always, our clients have been busy, and the news outlets take notice:

• National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) President Tom Kiernan was featured in a front-page article in the Washington Post last month, “National parks face severe funding crunch.” The piece describes how national parks are suffering from deferred maintenance, staff cuts, and other budget woes because of severe federal funding cuts. Kiernan also wrote an impassioned article for the Huffington Post to mark the 96th anniversary of the founding of the national park system. Tom sounds the alarm: “The Park Service currently suffers from an annual operating shortfall of more than $500 million, and additional looming cuts will jeopardize this world-class resource…national parks now face the prospect of devastating cuts through the annual appropriations process and the looming threat of the ‘sequester’ scheduled for January 2013.”

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