Nonprofits Seeking Boost Personalize Appeals, Pair With For-Profits

Nonprofits competing for funds are now teaming up with for-profit businesses to help curb what is predicted to be another tough year for charitable giving.

NPR reports one way nonprofits are trying to gain potential donors' attention is through personalized fundraising appeals. What appears to be handwritten post-it notes and post cards asking for donations may actually be a product of RST Marketing's Real Pen: a machine that can generate hundreds of fundraising letters a day in an array of hand writing fonts and multiple signatures.

NPR reports Keith Kanode, Client Services at RST Marketing, said:

"I think if you can't speak one-on-one with a donor, your next best option is a personalized, hand addressed-looking package."

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PostcardMania, a full-service postcard direct mail marketing company, boasts donating a total of 429,500 printed marketing pieces to help nonprofits raise awareness and promote events in 2010. Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of PostcardMania, says:

"I really feel like non-profits have an even harder time in this economy than the businesses and I just want to help and give back as much as I can."

But these business ventures don't solely benefit nonprofits. In Orlando, companies are joining nonprofits during annual community service projects to boost morale and promote public image as "one of the good guys," reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Margaret Linnane, executive director of the Rollins College Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center, sees the benefits this provides businesses:

"I think corporations have developed an attitude of wanting to be good corporate citizens," she said. "The nonprofits do a very good job of sharing the work that was done for them by a group. They get the word out about the good work that was done, and that makes people want to support the company, buy its product and maybe work for a company like that."