Useful Past Tips: ETHICS: Steps you should take right now What donor information should you use?

 
1. Steps you should take right now
It seems as if there's a celebrity spokesperson for every business and nonprofit. Heck, even the shaggy, '80s celebrity puppet ALF is now extolling the virtues of making collect calls.

Nonprofits and celebrities may seem like a natural match, but when it comes to consistently increasing revenues celebrities generally have the clout of a Peter Scolari rather than a Tom Hanks. How do you make sure that your Bosom Buddy continues to shine the brightest?

Think of celebrity as a premium, such as return address labels. They are eye-catching and interesting for a limited amount of time.

Remember that the cause is what drives fundraising. Do not lose sight of the cause just because you've secured today's flavor of the week as a spokesperson.

Capitalize on the media exposure brought by the celebrity. Involve direct mail packages designed to move people from a personal attachment as the link (the celebrity) to the organization's mission. Those who are not attached to the mission will only remain loyal for the finite period of time that the celebrity is on board.

Celebrities often like to set goals but avoid doing so frivolously. The clout of an actor, athlete or musician is mostly effective in raising awareness and funds, not research or implementation of a service. Promising results that you cannot deliver will only frustrate and alienate donors.

2. What donor information should you use?

As all phases of fundraising grow to global proportions and become more sophisticated, an awareness of the sensibilities of our own other cultures, as well as of laws regarding privacy, becomes more important.

At a recent conference, ethical standards being offered by the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) were offered as an aid to international fundraisers.

Among the key concepts that must be kept in mind is the idea that the respect and trust of donors is paramount. Ethics help protect sensitive information, every organization should enforce a privacy policy and any information obtained through less ethical means should be destroyed.

To those ends, there is a clear-cut distinction between information that is generally available to prospect researchers and information that is not generally available.

Information that is generally available:

• Stock and options holdings of public company officers and directors.
  
  
• Compensation of top officers in public companies.
  
  
• Unsealed public records, such as vital records and business licenses.
  
  
• Published donations.
  
  
• Business information, such as annual reports of public companies.
  
  
• Real estate values.

Information not generally available:

• Bank balances.
  
  
• Unpublished salaries of private individuals.
  
  
• Specifics about a person's complete or asset portfolio.
  
  
• A full listing of liabilities.
  
  
• Sealed public records, such as divorce documents.
  
  
• Unlisted telephone numbers.

Unpublished donations.

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