We wrote about two cracking digital charity campaigns today, as well as publishing a story about the head of the fundraising body's standards committee warning of bad charity direct mail and the damage it does.
We're talking about opposite ends of the spectrum here - ActionAid and The Royal British Legion using digital to its fullest creative extent at one end, and shoddy direct mail practices such as use of shock tactics at the other.
A viral by international development charity ActionAid celebrates each donor as the greatest humanitarian in the world in an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek video clip that takes donors on a journey where people all over the world (including Barack Obama) thank them personally for their small, but significant contribution.
The Royal British Legion, meanwhile, has created a commemorative website for the 65th anniversary of D-Day, where visitors can plant virtual flags on a Google map of the historic landing beaches in Normandy.
Wonderful.
Is direct mail getting desperate in these donation-challenged times? Or does this tale of contrasts expose the limitations of direct mail, when compared with digital, as a fundraising tool? For charities, response rates will be the judge.
