While we're enjoying beach days, barbeques and other Summer fun activities, the team at Blue North can't help but notice that year-end will be coming up on us faster than we realize!

From Giving Tuesday to the tax receipt deadline, the last 8 weeks of the calendar year are a critical fundraising period for nonprofits and a strong digital campaign is a must have for year-end fundraising success.

We are very excited to announce that we have decided to launch a new cable TV service. To keep our offering simple, we are going to market with two different levels of service:

Just as the stories of your beneficiaries inspire and educate your donors, we think the stories of fellow fundraisers can inspire you.

In this “Meet a Do-Gooder” feature, we talked with Anita Chow, Senior Manager Direct Marketing, Habitat for Humanity Canada. She discusses the evolving landscape of direct marketing for fundraisers, and the best part of her workday at Habitat for Humanity Canada.

Although I’ve worked with many different nonprofit organizations to grow their fundraising, one of the most fulfilling parts of my career was providing support to grow the World Vision gift catalog’s revenue by over 300% in a five-year period.

I was fortunate enough to spend about six years of my fundraising career at World Vision, one of the largest global relief organizations in the world. During my time there, our team oversaw the gift catalog program. Back in 2006, gift catalogs were just becoming a popular way to raise money (much thanks to the efforts of Heifer International).

Just as the stories of your beneficiaries inspire and educate your donors, we think the stories of fellow fundraisers can inspire you.

In this “Meet a Do-Gooder” feature, we talked with Garvin Maffett, Chief Advancement Officer at Patrick Family Services. Find out how he took a crash-course in relationships fundraising for Yale University, and what the top three qualities he looks for when hiring fundraisers.

Attending Bridge Conference last week in Washington was fantastic. I connected with fundraisers across the continent who are all eager to learn as much as they can to make a bigger impact for their organizations. At the Blue North booth, I represented the relational giving side of our business. It was interesting to hear from various organizations about their struggles and successes — and to field questions, particularly about Mid-Level giving. I've answered three frequently asked questions here.

Over the years, Blue North has worked with more than 45 organizations — in four continents — on Middle Donor programs. Based on our accumulated data, we know that these programs can be incredibly effective. In fact, we’ve seen an average 25% year-over-year lift with our clients who have developed these programs.

Introducing Robyn Kennedy, Blue North's Senior Relational Strategist. Robyn provides effective tools and strategies to help our clients make the biggest impact possible. In this video, she explains why investing in Middle Donors is a great opportunity for your fundraising organization.