On Friday I was on of the few selected speakers to present at the first ever Run, Walk, Ride conference put on by the same people who brought us the Cause Marketing Forum. In all it was a very tight group of about 50 or so fundraising professionals and few consultants who make it our business to raise money by conducting physical event. I was there to talk about the Second Life Relay For Life and the kinds of success we are having. I really enjoyed a few of the presentations including a very cool overview of a smaller agency that I think is following right in the footsteps of the Society - Y-Me Breast Cancer Organization.
One other presentations was from a Kintera representative. In short he was talking about the imperative need to personalize the entire experience for donors, especially the follow ups. We need to understand if the donors are giving because of the cause or the fundraiser and adjust our approaches accordingly. That is no new idea but technology is allowing us to do just that. He and I led a follow up discussion on the important of online presence and we were joined by one of the pres from Event-360 which is another fundraisng consultancy. All in all I enjoyed the trip as well as the conference. It provided some nice contact and I hope helped to move the industry forward some.
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