REBUILD.US Empowers Local Organizations to Rebuild Disaster Communities

REBUILD.US delivers immediate relief and long-term funding to disaster-impacted communities. The initiative empowers trusted local organizations on the ground. These groups ensure families receive rapid support during crises. The program provides sustained resources for future recovery. The goal is helping communities rebuild stronger. The Ford Foundation website hosts the announcement. The foundation also highlights work in the Andean Region. Operations extend to Brazil, China, and East Africa. Additional focus areas include disability rights. Climate justice is another key priority. The project forges a new model for disaster relief in America. This investment supports the broader mission of challenging inequality.

DMAW Announces 2026 Award Recipients

The Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DMAW) announced the recipients of its 2026 Membership Recognition Awards. The organization honored individuals and organizations for their leadership, innovation, service, and commitment. These contributions made a meaningful impact on the direct marketing and fundraising community. The awards recognize specific achievements within the sector. The announcement highlights the DMAW’s focus on professional excellence. The source material provides the name of the organization and the year of the awards. It details the criteria for recognition. The text is truncated, limiting further detail. The DMAW is the sole entity named. No specific recipients are listed in the provided context.

Most frustrating fundraising image of all time

Jeff Brooks, author of *The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand*, identifies the “Old Man Eating” (OME) image as a persistent fundraising tool used by urban rescue missions in the United States. Discovered in the early years of direct-response fundraising, the photo depicts an elderly, bearded male eating at a table. While missions have tested against it for decades, Brooks argues the cliche persists because it works. He notes a factual discrepancy: OME is not typical of rescue mission clientele, who are mostly young adults and mothers with children. The elderly comprise 10% or less of those served.

Newsletter fundraising strategy tightens connection with donors

Jeff Brooks writes in Future Fundraising Now on September 15, 2026, that the term “newsletter” is dangerous in fundraising. Creating donor newsletters tightens connections and improves retention. However, marketing and communications teams often derail projects. They demand to create organization-centric content. This content highlights awards, milestones, and brand compliance. Donors ignore this irrelevant material. Retention rates remain unchanged. The effort wastes time and budget. Marketing teams remain satisfied with the brand-compliant output. Brooks advises avoiding the word “newsletter” to prevent this interference. He cites a colleague who uses the term “impact reports.” Marketing staff find impact reports uninteresting. They do not intervene in those projects.

You owe your donors passion

Jeff Brooks authored “You owe your donors passion,” published September 16, 2026, on Future Fundraising Now. The piece argues that donors demand visible passion from nonprofits, yet many organizations have lost it. Brooks attributes this decline to time, growth, and fear of criticism, complaints, or controversy. He asserts that caution leads to bland, flat, and safe public communications. Brooks contends that passion is exhausting and dangerous, noting one definition involves suffering. He maintains that if an organization is not a white-hot source of jaw-dropping passion, it is boring and unworthy of donor money. Donors seek to matter and improve the world, contrasting with their mundane daily lives.

Also in the News