Huntsinger & Jeffer Direct Mail Agency

Loading Newer »

Less

When Is A Contribution Just A Stick-Up?

Published by Willis April 9th, 2008 in Direct Mail. Closed

This week’s Fundraising Success online featured the rather startling story of a vendor that was scolded, and ultimately let go, by a client who felt the vendor hadn’t “donated” enough to the client’s cause. (See the Story Here)

When an agency provides a service that helps a non-profit raise money or carry out its mission, those two organizations have engaged in a straightforward fee-for-service contract. The agency has a responsibility to provide the best possible service and in return may charge a fair rate for its services.

Where in that simple equation is there an obligation for the agency to then give extra money to the non-profit just for the privilege of retaining its business? In any other business arena they’d have a name for this kind of transaction: it would be a kickback (which Webster defines as “a return of a part of a sum received often because of confidential agreement or coercion”) and would be considered unethical or even illegal.

The fact is that most agencies, including ours, frequently give extra time and manpower, and discount fees to their nonprofit clients, because we understand that non-profits are margin-sensitive, and that most of them are doing good work in the world.

So if, within that context, the agency chooses to support its client’s cause out of a sense of good corporate citizenship, that’s great. What rankles though, is the expectation that somehow an agency owes it to their clients to simply give them money above and beyond the fair value of their contract.

As to the Foundation that so rudely strong-armed its vendor: the vendor is almost certainly better off without them.

Ready for Recession?

Published by Willis March 24th, 2008 in Direct Mail. Closed

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. According to a poll on the Nonprofit Quarterly’s web site, only 22.5%of responding nonprofits say they are “bracing for the worst” should the economy head into recession. The majority of organizations say they are “Doing some things to prepare,” while fully 30% answered, “No, we have bigger fish to fry.”

In fact, that last answer, focusing on raisng funds and running their vital programs, are about the best things organizations and companies can do to minimize the effects of a weak economy.

In any event, it’s reassuring to know that people aren’t panicking over many of the dire predictions from pundits and “experts.” The last thing we need is for recession to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

pink teen lips
big white butts
christina enormous natural 42kkk rack
male bestiality
atk hairy olivia
young girl peeing
adult toys online
doggystyle sex
boobs sexy
bodybuilders shave
wet ebony
pierced pussy
shemale gag
fat men masturbating
ass fucked granny
small cfnm
dog having sex with girl
brigitte quinns sexy legs
teenage girls naked
katie price sex tape
fantasy erotic stories
home video xxx
young lolita blog
male to female sex change
cream sex
redhead sucks
free gay sex galleries
mom strips for son
gay muscle stud
petite hotties
shit asian
indian naked
dirty debutante ed powers
fort lauderdale mwr military base
how to put your tongue into your wife’s bum
fertile cunt orgasming sperm
lolita sucking
cigarette girl costume
milwaukee county zoo ala carte
handjob pantyhose
free sexcams no membership
swingers sites
sexy indian slut
femdom movie portal
first anal teen
gay foot parties
kat von d nude
asian girl feet
gag gift molds
redhead maature porn galleries
school girls xxx
chick orgasm
squirting pussy mpeg
bbw cameltoe
ebony lesbian strapon
extreme penitrations
enormous penis gallery
nonpiercing penis jewelry
invading cock deep into my pussy
teen witch
hot latins
forced cum swallow
amd assembly compare and swap code
slutty sammi nylon blog
grannys porn
olsen twins still virgins
teen girls dating men 10 to 20 years older
bare fist fight
sleep voyeur
hot dirty sluts
blowjob babes
upskirt new
free porn clips online
how to fuck a girl
glove fetish
cum fuck me boots
young and horny
horniest twinks
bdsm sex videos
penis picture
hustler couples
free college sluts
whipped cream girl
hidden toilet vids
cum on his face
mature mom son
cheerleaders undies
latina round ass fucked hard
suzy zoo characters
teen in tights
nifty sex stories
twinks pics
Blow It Out Your Ass CD-2
free erotic ecards
bbw breasts
puke on cock
Volgari Punizioni Anali CD-2
giving girls orgasms
reality hardcore parties
sex clips free
silvia tug job
Waist Watchers CD-1
penis enlargement that works
gay military sexx
oregon family dentistry
chubby asian girls
family incest cartoons
jeanna fine porn star
the big swallow brandi
pee hole insertion
ass eating
gag on my cock serenity
nude women in bondage
cartoon blowjobs
anal bestiality
cum kiss
latex dominatrix
secretary hottie
dog lover license plate frames
nude scene whole nine yards
ez pass application
forced pussy eating
how penis enlargement works
mature porn pics
fisting extreme
slutty chicks
sexy gangbang
denim tight
penis enlargement products
babes wearing lingerie
big tit secretary sex
wet hairy cunt
hack hp cm8060 blogs
porn access
Discovering The Girl Next Door-3
muscle girls
joe cocker with a little help from my friends
xxx bdsm
free monster hentai
girls who swallow forum
romantic erotic stories
naked girls making out
creampie mpeg free
hey sexy lady mp3
sex hard
big tits in tight clothing
filipina asian
body tattoo galleries
blog sexy
voyeur sex movies
ex wives
penis implants
anal sex beads
blowjob videos
beastiality tgp
jobs working with animals
pregnant wives
sexy facials
lolita ebony
hp psc 2175xi driver download

American Express Ruling: Remember to Protect Your Creative

Published by Willis February 5th, 2008 in Direct Mail. Closed

A federal appeals court in New York on Monday upheld a ruling in favor of American Express – a ruling that serves as a cautionary tale to agencies who present creative ideas to prospects.

According the an article in SmartMoney (see the article here) a man named Stephen Goetz had developed propriety software that would allow consumers to personalize their credit cards. He had submitted proposals to several credit card companies and suggested they could use the phrase, “My Life, My Card,” to promote the product.

American Express appropriated the phrase for its own use and Mr. Goetz sued.

In 2006, the U.S. District Court ruled that Goetz had, “no valid protectable trademark rights” that preceded or outweighed American Express’s right to use the slogan. Yesterday the federal court agreed.

At one time or another, just about everyone in the agency business has submitted valuable creative concepts to a prospect, only to have the prospect employ the creative but not the agency.

Even more egregious, there have been stories of third party vendors who use agency creative that has passed through their shop, to launch their own client “services.”

This ruling would seem to give a green light to all those practices.

In the ongoing battle over intellectual property rights that is being fought on so many fronts, here is one more indication that people in the creative business need to make certain they are protecting their own ideas.

slutty chicks
male sexual abuse
free midget porn pictures
squirt on me
blow job gag
bbw fingering
brunette fucking
drawstring nylon bag
bree olsen strip
Snow Bottoms CD-1
smoking fetish forums
coloring pages for adults
enormous penis
college girl party
petite bald pussy
hardcore blow job
totally free bdsm classifieds
piercing a clit
cute busty brunette scream
innocent girl
play with paris pussy
giant panda facts
twinks sex
bdsm japanese
small filipina boobs xxx
orgasm dildo
cute dogs
premature ejaculation and zoloft
bukkake video clips
ffm threesome picture galleries
wet creampie
hot korean girl rides a cock
enormous fake tits
teen girls dating men 10 to 20 years older
illegal extreme preteen sex
bladder desperate pee
young asians
cfnm mpeg
oriental fetish
gag gift molds
pedo blogs
hardcore movie free porn movie galleries
retro lesbian sex
porn star pics
internal creampie eating
forced sex mpegs
tommy hilfiger girdier boots for men
how to fuck a girl
tranny many
burton moto snowboard boot wom
how to anal sex
g spot orgasm video
teen orgasim
teachers pet hentia
big black asses getting fucked
lolita toy
large cap wigs
latex dominatrix
teens with dildos
sexy indian slut
boys in pantyhose
nude athletes
smoking zyban
girl boarding school
extreme creampies
ass fucked granny
fucked hard brunette
slave girl bdsm art
tranny masturbate
porn hand jobs
shower blow job
bdsm sex videos
see me wanking
cock shaving
oregon family dentistry
kelly handjob
pretty butts
shimmy shimmy ya ol’ dirty bastard
Obscene Behavior CD-1
jeans fetish
picture facial features compare chinese korean japenesse
Assapalooza-3 CD-2
ebony lesbian group sex
paparazzi celebrity
thallium whole body imaging
big and large pictures of penis
that big tit site
deep enough to dream mp3
reality sex outdoor
secretaries fetish
enourmous butts
kristina abernathy legs
salma hayek nude
jamaican pussy
skinny dip girl
milfs in thongs
young latinas nude
hot celebrities naked
model a ford swap meets
personal home sex videos
free online sex chats
strapon porn
student handjob
latino girls fucking
free football college bowl pool forms
gay erotic drawings
brazil sex ass
very young little girls naked
free tranny porn
drunk horny girls
animated bdsm gifs
cum fuck me boots
college coeds in thongs
gay men having sex
enormous penis gallery
jizz on me
naked teen lesbians
porno rape
playboy cartoon
joliet junior college
zoo porn
tall leather work boot
physical exam boys
hunt realty buffalo
rock of love uncensored
oriental strippers nude picture gallery
manga boobs
whore gag
latino marketing plastic surgery
mature old women
full body tattoo
hot hunks in the shower
blowjob videos
hardcore couples outdoors
cartoon animal porn
virgin fuckers
gay zoo sex
mariah carey boobs
husband slave wife domination stories
girls sucking cock through gloryhole
local sluts
dirty comic strips
forced pussy licking
cute blonde pussy
desert suede chukka boot
naturist boys
davinci’s notebook - enormous penis mp3
men stripped bound glory hole
skinny black girls
gay hard toons
my wifes clit
indian sluts
cum inside cunt
gloryhole cum
ffm threesome free movies
teacher blowjobs
teen bisexual strapon sex
amateur adult film
piercing the clitoris
teen shower orgasm

A New Way Helping Others Can Be Rewarding

Published by Willis January 29th, 2008 in Direct Mail. 0 Comments

A marketing idea that’s taken off like wildfire in the retail sector is being tested in innovative new ways by at least two nonprofits. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Easter Seals have both instituted “membership rewards” programs designed to increase donor involvement, retention and, presumably, financial gifts as well.

In these programs, donors are invited to make a gift, sign a petition, volunteer, forward a newsletter, or perform other cause-related activities. In return, they earn rewards points, similar to hotel, airline, or credit card programs.

Points can be redeemed for a wide range of branded premiums, like note cards, lapel pins, even an Easter Seals Folding Captain’s Chair or a Satellite Photograph of the Chesapeake Bay.

I don’t know what kind of participation the organizations are getting, but it sure is a creative way to keep donors and prospects involved on the web, in the mail, or wherever they choose to promote the program.

We’ll be watching to see whether these programs prove successful enough to inspire other organizations to give them a test.

Who’s Watching the Watchdogs?

Published by Willis January 21st, 2008 in Direct Mail. 0 Comments

As if the nonprofit world needed another scandal, GiveWell, an organization that critiques other charity groups, is in hot water for being, let’s say, less than transparent in its self-promotion.

Seems that GiveWell’s two founders tried to promote their site via the one of the oldest dodges in the book, the staged testimonial. Elie Hassenfeld and Holden Karnofsky, two former hedge-fund analysts, used fake names and posed as philanthropists in online forums looking for places to contribute. Then they turned around and posted answers their own questions, again using pseudonyms, by recommending GiveWell.

GiveWell’s board wasted no time in fining and demoting the two, and they’ve issued lengthy mea culpas on the group’s blog (though not, interestingly enough, on its home page).

Holy Toledo, one has to ask, how many times do we have keep being told that our mothers were right – that honesty is always the best policy? Is it so hopelessly old-fashioned to simply make a legitimate case for giving and trust donors to respond?

Well, okay, it’s a lot more complicated than that. But donors are not exactly famous for taking a complex and nuanced view of charities when it comes to matters of ethics. So let’s just consider this simple, inescapable equation: credibility lost = dollars lost.

And when one person or organization plays too close to the margins of ethical fundraising, the resulting mistrust just ripples outward to everyone in sight.

There’s no question that these are challenging days for fundraisers. But if donors begin to think we’re rising to those challenges by trying to trick them out of their gifts, then we’re really in trouble.

Chris Bosh…NBA Star, Adman

Published by Norman January 17th, 2008 in Web 2.0. 0 Comments

Via the Wall Street Journal comes a story about professional atheletes who are using new media to promote themselves, their endorsers and more. One NBA player in the piece, Chris Bosh, shows that, given access to just enough (low price) tools, you, too, can be a successful pitchman/adman:

Mr. Bosh, with help from his girlfriend and brother, recently wrote and shot his own Web commercial. The ad, in which Mr. Bosh takes on the persona of a Texas-fried used-car salesman to ask fans to vote him into the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Game, has become something of an underground hit, racking up more than 376,000 viewings on YouTube.

And a little later, we see that he was able to create his spot for next to nothing:

In Mr. Bosh’s case, the shoot took all of an hour and cost him $20 — and $15 of that was for the cowboy hat he sported, he says.

How does it look? See for yourself.

It’s pretty funny, too, and what it also shows is that, yes, even a self-starter like Bosh relies upon the media he’s seen elsewhere:

The ad by Mr. Bosh, who plays for the Toronto Raptors, spoofs the low-grade used-car ads he grew up watching in Dallas. “Fillin’ out these ballots is as easy as cow-tippin’,” Mr. Bosh, sporting a bolo tie and a fake gut created by a T-shirt stuffed into his clothes, proclaims in the ad.

“I wanted a cheap, cheesy feel to it,” he says.

So spend a few bucks for equipment, add a fondness for campy, locally-produced ads, get your brother and girlfriend to help and viola…a YouTube hit is born (though it helps to be a recognized NBA star with a battery of traditional ads and marketing efforts behind you).

What else does this remind me of? Yup, the political ads of Kinky Friedman.

So if Copywriting is Dead, Direct Mail Must Be, Too

Published by Norman January 16th, 2008 in Direct Mail. 0 Comments

That’s the tenor of this obituary from Give & Take. According to a Target Analytics Group, direct mail is stumbling, changing, or something equally ominous. And that leads some to creep from the shadows and proclaim that mail is dead (so try my new approach instead!).

But before we return to the dust from which we came, it’s important to ask a few questions. For example, the initial piece on the Target study says:

In first three quarters of last year, donations made in response to direct-marketing appeals failed to keep pace with inflation, growing by a median of 1.4 percent, meaning that half the groups achieved greater increases and half fared worse. The number of people who made gifts declined by a median 1.4 percent since 2006. Meanwhile, the organizations recruited a median 6.2 percent fewer new donors, on top of a 10-percent decline in new donors for the first three quarters of 2006.

Hmmm. What happened last year that could have resulted in such declines? For one thing, inflation did pick up (thank you imported oil!). That means the growth bar, well, grew, at a pretty good clip. But that can’t explain everything, can it?

Yes, it can:

Consumers’ short-term outlook regarding business conditions, employment, inflation and stock prices improved marginally. However, while consumers are less negative about the near-term future, they remain far from optimistic. Furthermore, persistent declines in the Present Situation Index indicate the economy is still losing momentum. In fact, in assessing the current job market, pessimists now outnumber optimists. Regarding business conditions, the gap between the two is almost nonexistent.”

Consumer confidence has been tanking since the middle of last year…just about the time the economic news started to turn sour. And remember, too, that these can be lagging indicators…the real bad news began brewing months before sentiment turned.

How so? Let’s think about that for a second…rising inflation, higher gas prices, higher food prices, endless caterwauling about the subprime mess, falling retail sales, increased auto loan and credit cards defaults, plus the Red Sox winning the World Series…surely that has got to depress even the best donors?

What elese happened last year that could explain why some people just didn’t give anymore?

Oh, here’s one…nothing happened. For nonprofits that depend on headline-making disasters to generate donations, 2007 was a bust. Huge hurricane season? Nope. Big, nasty, winter storms? Nope.

Let’s face it: There are a lot of people out there who will give — and give generously — to nonprofits, but only when there really seems to be a need. Otherwise, they have other things to spend their money on (like even more expensive food and gasoline).

What else, what else…

Oh, here’s one: The presidential race.

Yes, pols from both sides of the aisle were soaking up huge amounts of money throughout 2007 in anticipation of running races a year later. Thank the front-loaded primary schedule for the aggressive early start to the electoral fundraising season. But also, don’t discount it for cutting into nonprofit fundraising. That is especially true for advocacy organizations, some of whom are finding that their donors are giving money directly to the candidates and skipping their appeals entirely.

Remember those points the next time you read a direct mail obituary (and see how many of them match-up with the obits written during the dot com boom. Remember those days? Email was going to destroy direct mail…within weeks, if not minutes for those on “Internet time”).

Does direct mail face challenges going forward? Of course it does. But so, too, does every other fundraising channel. The competition for donors is getting tougher every year as the number of nonprofits grows. Economic uncertainty only makes it worse.

But the industry has been here before. It’s survived, grown and even…dare I say it?… thrived, because it continues to deliver results in good times, and bad.

Is Copywriting Dead?

Published by Norman January 16th, 2008 in Direct Mail. 1 Comment

Bob Bly posts a statement from a friend that ought to send shivers through the spines of copywriters everywhere:

“Copywriting is not as valued as it used to be,” she maintains. The reason: marketers today are gravitating toward other marketing tools.

Home-made videos create buzz on YouTube. Blogs are content, not sales copy. Print advertising is in decline. On the Web, researching and optimizing for keywords seems to be more important than “copy.”

So…is copywriting dead? The discussion in the comments on Bly’s post would seem to indicate that it’s not. At least, not yet.

But in an age where anyone can (or thinks they can) pull together a snazzy marketing campaign using a few cool tools and a couple of well-placed Google bombs, the idea that copywriting isn’t important anymore could become self-fulfilling.

Until people start looking at their results, that is.

Then, they might discover a funny thing…technological changes have created more marketing platforms than ever before. But strip away the flash animation and what you’re left with are words.

And those words have to make the sale.

It’s something we find in nonprofit fundraising, using those boring old letters that are just soooo last century.

Color pictures look great. Nice paper stock…hey, I like it! Die-cuts and fancy carriers? Ooooooh.

But without the words, it’s just an (expensive) collage. And without good, smart, well-chosen words that grab the reader and make him reach for his checkbook, they are expensive failures.

No, copywriting isn’t dead. But good copy is getting harder and harder to find.

Occam, whither thy razor?

Published by Willis January 14th, 2008 in Direct Mail. 0 Comments

In the current issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly, an anonymous writer asks the magazine’s “Nonprofit Ethicist” about a convoluted billing practice in which a vendor, rather than discount its fees, charges a standard fee, then makes a contribution to the organization to offset the charges.

“This,” the writer says, has been proposed as a ‘better’ approach than discounting fees up front since then the organization may book the costs of doing business as less than what it would actually take if the provider were not so generous – or perhaps the organization should book at standard cost and show an in-kind contribution – if the two amounts are spelled out and not subsumed into one discounted rate?”

Whew!

The magazine’s “ethicist” offers a cautious response, but doesn’t directly address either the appearence of impropriety issue or the larger issue of discounted fees in general.

All of which which leaves us to wonder: why all the fancy footwork?

These economic double back flips may be all in a day’s work for the accountants. But here’s our question: why discount fees to begin with? Why not simply provide a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay? If an agency’s charges are reasonable and appropriate, there should be no need to devise discounts, except in the most unusual circumstances.

More importantly: how does this practice look to the donor who’s not up on the latest in sophisticated accounting practices? Isn’t this just going to smell a little funny? “Hmmm,” the donor might think, “this organization I support is doing business with an agency, then the agency is turning around and kicking a chunk of change back to the non-profit? What’s going on behind the scenes here?”

And what about all those muckraking reporters who spend their days just looking to “uncover” another fundraising scandal?

Complicated billing like this is all perfectly innocent, of course. But too many nonprofits have discounted the studied obtuseness of scandalmongers and lived to regret it.

Wouldn’t life, and business, be better for all concerned if a vendor simply charged a reasonable fee from the beginning? Why not just let the clients pay for what they get, and get what they pay for?

Number Crunching on Social Networking

Published by Norman December 4th, 2007 in Web 2.0. 0 Comments

Via Frogloop comes an extensive ROI calculator you can use to determine whether it’s worth the time and, yes, the money required to set up and run a fundraising program on social networking sites.