Columbia University ran a one-day online fundraising campaign that drew $6.9 million. It had all the hallmarks of a political-style money bomb:

• A time-limited campaign to create urgency;
• Matching gifts from major contributors to inspire donations;
• A counter showing funds raised to date;
• Donations before the formal campaign launch to generate momentum; and
• Multi-channel promotion via e-mail, social media, and phones.

I’m particularly intrigued by the university’s use of a contest between its component schools to prompt donors to give more.

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Meghan Keaney Anderson warns against personalizing content just because you can: “Personalization without a good reason breaks the cardinal inbound rule: Marketing should be driven by the prospective customer’s needs. At its core, marketing should be useful.”

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Tom Belford:

Direct response fundraising is seriously broken. And incrementalism won’t fix it … indeed, might get in the way of fixing it.

We think fundraisers need to lift their sights above the weeds.

This is exactly right. Focus your fundraising strategy on long-term successes, not incremental improvements and minutiae.

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If you have to provide step-by-step instructions on how to navigate your web site, including a whole section devoted to your home page, perhaps you need to rethink how your site is designed.

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Some interesting anecdotes about how young people use social media and e-mail (via Tyler Cowen).

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