Donor Doctor Show

Welcome to the Donor Doctor with your host James Newberry. On today's show, James interviews Wendy Newman Charitable Direct Mail Copywriter. Meet Wendy Newman   Wendy is the Senior Account Executive at Fund Raising Strategies. She was one of the first batch of female students at the University of Virginia in 1970. She graduated with a major in English, and worked for nonprofit organizations.   Wendy used to work at Garfinckel's department store after graduating from college. She eventually transitioned in career and became the secretary in a mailroom of a trade association. Later she coordinated direct mail campaigns for different organizations, including the PBA.   Writing One's Passion   After 3 years of coordinating direct mails, Wendy went to work for Fund Raising Strategies. There she wrote about the things that she was most passionate about—animals, children, and veterans. Doing so, she reached out to clients online.   It's surely helpful to work on something that you truly love

Welcome to the Donor Doctor with your host James Newberry. On today's show, James interviews Ryan Mobley ALS Bucket Challenge, Froglube and famous WSJ ad. The ALS Bucket Challenge   Ryan does very well in adapting techniques to new circumstances. On today's show, James shares about the most successful fundraising technique in 2014—the ALS bucket challenge. It raised a staggering amount of 115 million dollars.   The bucket challenge was an adaptation of a famous game kids play in a school fair. For a dollar or so, kids get to dunk an annoying person using 5 softballs. If they successfully hit the target the person was dunked into water. Kids loved it.   Creative Fundraising Techniques   There are a lot of other creative techniques apart from the bucket challenge. James recalls a junior high school fundraising contest called the slave auction. A lot of charity events adapted it in various ways, such as the bachelor or bachelorette auction where you get to have lunch with a famous person. &n

Welcome to the Donor Doctor with your host James Newberry. On today's show, James interviews Robert Stuber Secrets from Helms Campaign, Perfume Wife Letter. Overnight Package Brings Success   Robert was the creative director of Jesse Helms' campaign in 1984. Together with his team, he shipped about 300,000 overnight letters that were highly concentrated with perfume. They believed that the more you stimulate the senses, the more likely you get a response.   The perfumed letters were signed by Mrs. Helms. The idea was to reach out in a traditional approach. Robert shares how they went through the overnight package, which left the post office unhappy.   Platinum Award Winner   Robert won 2 direct marketing platinum awards. The first award was for the overnight campaign he did for Helms. It was the first time that DMA gave a maxi award for package of the year. For this, Robert was deeply honored.   The overnight package cost a total of about 90,000 dollars. It was a rather expensive pack

Welcome to the Donor Doctor with your host James Newberry. On today's show, James interviews Vernon Robinson Helped Raise $12MM for Ben Carson. The City Councilman Vernon's first fundraising began in his bid for city councilman. His initial efforts were going to friends and family to raise money. Fortunately he was running against a naturalist and there was not much opposition. Vernon Robinson then ran for Congress. He worked with James on this campaign. He raise $3 million which is a lot for a congressional campaign in 2004. He outraised every candidate except the members of the leadership. It was a tough race for Vernon. He was going against a state senator and a member of the Broyhill family. Vernon came in first but then lost in the run-off. Upgrading Vernon raised money through direct mail and email but he was also very good at upgrading people. He had a lot of $100 donors but could not differentiate between those that could give more and that was the max they could give. There are two types of $100 don

Welcome to the Donor Doctor with your host James Newberry. On today's show, James interviews Bruce Eberle - Reagan Fundraiser - $ Billion Dollar Man. Engineer to Fundraiser Bruce began his career with Gulf Oil as an engineer working in a refinery. He was also involved with Young American's of Freedom and the Youth for Goldwater Miller in 1964. He found a the time he could handle the organizational aspect those movements but could not succeed at fundraising and it really frustrated him. To succeed, Bruce sought out people that had been successful at raising money. As he got better with the tips he received from the likes of Richard Viguerie, Bruce was asked to help with the Stop National Student Association and Students for the National Prayer Movement campaigns out of Houston. Timing Was Key in Reagan Campaign Bruce sent out a fundraising letter for Ronald Reagan that coincided with his famous speech in North Carolina. That one letter in his bid against Gerald Ford brought in 75,000 donors and $884,000! That