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This new service puts valuable information about your supporters right at your fingertips. Up to a dozen biographical and 23 interest categories. You can segment your donors for even better campaign results.

Starts at $.20 per successful match, $100 minimum. For more detailed information and pricing, email info@thedatabank.com or read more about it here. Any nonprofit can order data services through thedatabank.

Join thedatabank CEO Chris Hanson and Client Service Manager Sue Ponsford for a Databank User Lunch in Chicago on Monday, August 22nd. The user lunch will be from 12:30-2pm at the Healthy Schools Campaign office. Click the register button for more information.

We love to hear when clients spread the good word about thedatabank to their nonprofit friends. Until August 31st, we are adding an extra bonus to our normal Client Referral Program - any client who forwards our intro video by will be entered to win a $20 gift certificate to a movie theater in their area, along with some other movie goodies.

If you have any features you would like to see added to the Databank, you can request them here. We check this forum frequently!

You have always been able to search for donors who have made a soft credit donation in your Databank, but now you can search for people who are associated with a soft credit donation (i.e. the person who solicited the donor to make a contribution). You can do this by searching for "members who have soft credited contributions" on the soft credit search page.

When looking at the contact records in your Databank, you may happen upon a record with a code that you don't quite understand. Although we can't explain what your co-workers may be up to (I've seen some funny contact types), there are some system generated codes which you may not immediately know the use of. The following link should cover most of them: Understanding System Contact Values

If you have too many user added contact types, you can whittle the list down by merging types together. These instructions are for the Contact By field, but work exactly the same for Contact Type.

Recently, I found myself giving a donation that made no sense. The recipient was a statewide environmental organization, fine. But they're in another state. Why did I give them my money?

Because a kid asked me. And his appeal was so dang sincere and enthusiastic, I just couldn't say no.

Lew Blank, pre-teen fund raiser extraordinaire, is riding in the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Election Cycle, a bike event for conservation. Riders can register individually or form teams. Then, they set a fundraising goal and ask friends and family to support them by donating.

The web site, where participants can create their own page with a photo, goal, and custom text, is the latest manifestation of thedatabank's Personal Fundraising tool. A few things you should know about personal fundraising:

    * Personal fundraising means the solicitation comes from a person you know and trust. Traditional fundraising has the ask coming from the organization. This changes your role, because instead of asking, you are coaching, and providing tools and info to your group of fund raisers.

* It works especially well for compelling social causes with a natural emotional hook: puppies, diseases.

    * It's by far the most effective form of online fundraising. Response rates to individuals are 40-80%.* Response rate to the organization is typically around 3%.

    * Personal fundraising helps you reach donors you otherwise would not have connected with, especially younger donors. This approach has been around for a long time (Girl Scout Cookies) but the internet gives it a boost, because it is now so easy to share and ask.

    * On average, one fund raiser will recruit 5 donors, with an average gift of $50, so $250 per fund raiser.

    * We don't have good data on renewal rates/lifetime value...but you will need a cultivation plan, for new donors who come through this channel, just like you do with any acquisition campaign.

For more on Personal Fundraising, you can watch the recording of our 2010 webinar, and look at product information and more examples on our web site.

*all stats in this post come from Blue Sky Collaborative, 2011.