Best Practices in Online Fundraising
Columbia University asked Russ to research best practices for fundraising websites and to study how certain online tools (e.g., Flash- and HTML-enabled email) affected solicitation success.
The university is currently in the “silent phase” of a $4-billion fundraising campaign, the largest in the history of higher education. As part of the public launch of the campaign, set for early 2007, Columbia wanted to build a campaign website to highlight funding priorities and the campaign’s progress.
After performing an extensive series of interviews with officers at Columbia’s peer institutions, Russ delivered three reports on the various aspects of electronic fundraising including specific recommendations for the Columbia website. These findings are being incorporated in the new website.
Web consulting, writing + editing