We’ve heard of the possible changes for the U.S. Postal Service – from the recent coverage of suspending Saturday mail delivery to the increase in first class postage.  Clearly any proposed changes are bound to affect direct mail production and budgets.

It’s that time of year again … time to start hunkering down for year-end campaigns and for Avalon’s Top 10 tips to ensure your year-end fundraising is a success.

Another Avalon client in the news … this time a well-worded response to Representative Michele Bachmann’s recent HPV vaccine claims in The New York Times.

Big news from Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization whose shelters provide lifelong care for nearly 1,000 rescued farm animals …

Everyone knows that the first 30 seconds of a telemarketing call is make or break.  But isn’t it really the first 5 seconds?  If the caller stumbles and fumbles the first few words – that critical introduction – in all likelihood the call is lost.  So how can you train your callers to make the most of those first few moments?

Avalon is growing!  Do you know someone who you think would be a good fit with us?  If so … we want to know!  We’re currently looking for candidates for Program Manager and Online Program Manager positions.

So if you, or someone you know, is interested in joining the Avalon team, please contact us!

Two noteworthy accomplishments from the National Parks Conservation Association and the National Breast Cancer Coalition – two Avalon clients that have recently been in the news.  Their success stories are worth sharing …

One of the most interesting sessions I attended at the DMANF Conference last month was about coop databases … “List Coops: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”  We have all had experience testing (and rolling out) compiled lists in our acquisition programs – and are familiar with predicting demonstrated donor behavior via modeling … but what’s the big deal about nonprofit coop databases?  And what could be so ugly about them?

There are many ways to describe data – and its benefit to your fundraising programs.  The word beautiful, though, hardly comes to mind.  What a shame (really!)

Test, test, test – and tested we have. Each of our clients has had some interesting results this summer that have strengthened their programs.  There is one, though, that really stands out for me.