| Just when you think you’re fresh out of annual giving ideas, and your creative juices have run dry, it’s the 26th arrival of a beloved annual (giving) activity… If you’re not familiar with the Annual Giving Appeal and Idea Exchange, it’s like one big virtual annual and regular giving sample gift box for you and your annual giving program. You share samples of your multimedia annual and regular giving appeals and strategies from this past year, and you’ll see samples from every other institution that participates in the exchange in return. Each year, hundreds of institutions contribute thousands of samples, See the whole list of the 500+ institutions who have participated. What began 26 years ago as a paper direct mail exchange has evolved steadily to include email appeals, giving days, crowdfunding, Facebook messages, videos, and other types of annual and regular giving communications. Here are some recent video fundraising favorites. Here are some recent direct mail favorites. And there’s no cost to join us. There’s just one way to participate in the exchange — by sharing your own great examples and ideas. You can share your fundraising appeal samples as pdf files, Facebook pages (or other social media), YouTube videos, Web pages or other links, giving days, crowdfunding, texting or email appeals. In return, you’ll receive access to the Annual Giving Appeal and Idea Exchange online collection (including eight years of previously-shared samples.) Institutions of all types and located anywhere in the world are welcome to participate. (Recent years have included samples from Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, France, East Africa, Australia, Lebanon, and Singapore.) Here is the drill: You don’t need to register. Just share your pdf direct mail samples, email samples, links to Facebook pages, giving day appeals, crowdfunding pages, YouTube video samples, other Web sites or any clever ideas and strategies you wish to include. Email your samples and links to: fundlist@bobburdenski.com. (If your email attachments are too large, put them in Google Drive, Dropbox or some other file sharing program and send us a sharing link so we can download them.) Please include your contact information in your message(s). You can send multiple emails if you like. Please save direct mail pdf samples in a low-file-size resolution, and if possible, sort them by audience so we can group appeals by prospect audience. In return we’ll send you login instructions for accessing the online Annual and Regular Giving Appeal Exchange repository (which includes the last five years of samples). There’s no hard deadline for sharing samples electronically, but try to have them to us by July 15, 2026. Please say a few words about your appeals when you share them. What worked well? What didn’t? What are you most proud of? Help the other participants understand what “the rest of the story” was with your annual giving appeals. Put some notes in with your sharing. We reserve the right to decline submissions for any reason, including those institutions that share a single sample or provide no context. Third-party businesses cannot share samples on behalf of their customers. Hope you’ll join us for all the fun! Bob |