October 26, 2008 at 5:13 pm
UNICEF has sent me not a pencil, but a diary – just at the time it is needed. It is very much paper-back (so probably not up to heavy wear). Each month is a double-page spread, together with a simple message from UNICEF – sometimes saying what UNICEF is doing to help the problem. In [...]
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October 26, 2008 at 4:31 pm
My wife has received a letter starting off with: “talking to someone you have never met about bowels is quite a challenge!” But Deborah Gilbert, Head of Development at Bowel Cancer Research is more than up to the challenge. She makes the very valid point that, even in our supposedly more “open” society, some people [...]
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October 19, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Charities come high in any competition for ‘blowing one’s own trumpet’. And yet, when you think about it, the views of others carry far more weight.
That is why I was particularly pleased to receive literature from Compassion in World Farming, where the Head of Agriculture at no less than Marks & Spencer was quoted as [...]
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October 16, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I like the latest missive from Fight for Sight. It is upbeat: I think donors like that – hearing how their money has achieved results. “Advances are now being made that will lead to patients’ lives being enhanced in ways that were not thought possible a decade ago.” Having a chronic eye disease myself, I [...]
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October 10, 2008 at 5:41 pm
All of us receive requests from a variety of quarters. With cold weather and Christmas coming, I am expecting stories of people living on the streets, elderly people unable to afford heating, and so on.
It was refreshing to hear, therefore, how well ahead are donkeys at The Donkey Sanctuary. They have a guarantee to be [...]
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October 6, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Charities are waking up to the fact that donors want to see how their money is being used to good purpose, and so, increasingly, appeals are for specific purposes – with never an appeal for the auditors’ fees!
Reporting back, also, is a good way of maintaining donors’ attention – when, naturally, there are many other calls [...]
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October 6, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Have you ever felt that you would pay good money to get out of some obligation to which you had agreed – perhaps after a little pressure had been applied?
Sound Seekers is putting that approach to good use. It is suggesting a number of worthy ways in which recipients of its letter could help the [...]
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October 1, 2008 at 4:28 pm
The National Trust has gone into overdrive in trying to goad its supporters to ’save’ Seaton Delaval Hall. ‘Without your support, 1,000 years of history could be lost forever’. The ‘ask’ is for £6.3 million by the end of 2008, so as to buy the estate.
We are told it is in the North East – [...]
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