A recession ban next week...

That's right, I'm asking you all to ban all talk of the global downturn, recession proofing, credit crunch, blah blah blah.. for the next week.

Frankly, it's downright depressing and more than anything else, distracting.

Kimberley MacKenzie asked her readers to Snap out of it! in her recent post, referring to the incessant whining and barrier building rut we seem to be catching ourselves in.

Here, here Kimberley. Well I'm going a step further and asking for a ban on all things related to the 'R' word (see I'm not even saying it already) next week..

But before my self imposed embargo begins, I would like to share some of what's happening on the coalface for many of our clients at Pareto Fundraising.

Hopefully I'll have some final results to share shortly, but the state of play of recent appeal and acquisition mailings has been a mixed bag.

It would appear around a quarter of our Aussie clients will exceed target (and last year's results), around half will be around the same as last year (give or take) and the remainder will be down, some significantly.

One client lodged some direct mail acquisition prior to Christmas and the results we have seen (with an ask straight to regular/monthly giving) have been phenomenal. Well above target and close to their best performing results ever.

Here in Canada we've lodged our first appeal mailing and already the appeal has far outstripped last year's appeal and looks set to hit target (which was
considerablyhigher than last years' appeal).

So what does this mean?

It means exactly what it means. Some clients will continue to thrive while others may struggle.

It means that to quote Kimberley MacKenzie we should "Stop whining and worrying and just get to work".

It means we should worry about we can control, not what we can't.

And I hope it means that the week commencing January 12, 2009 is "recession ban week"..

Jonathon