THE FUNDRAISER'S HANDBOOK: MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION IN DIRECT RESPONSE FUNDRAISING, Canadian Marketing Association, Toronto, Ontario, $ 9.95 for members, $12.95 for non-members. To order: Elizabeth Lewis, 416/391-2362, ext. 246, e-mail: elewis@the-cma.org, or website: www.the-cma.org

Released at a Fundraisers Conference, this new handbook from the Canadian Marketing Association provides useful measurements for evaluating direct response fundraising programs such as direct mail, telemarketing and direct response television.

“The CMA Fundraisers Council recognized that organizations are using many different techniques to measure the performance of their direct response programs. There is confusion as to what elements should be measured and how they can be analyzed and compared consistently,” says Neil Gallaiford, member of the CMA Fundraisers Council Executive and president of FRM Consulting, which co-ordinated the project.

To meet the need for consistent measurement techniques, the CMA Fundraisers Council held workshops and created a Fundraising Measurement Study Group to establish a set of evaluative tools. The objective was not to produce quantitative standards, but instead to help direct response fundraisers measure the performance of their own programs in a meaningful way.

The result was a set of practical measurements for a variety of direct response fundraising techniques. The CMA Fundraiser's Handbook clearly defines these measurements, provides examples, and explains terms and concepts relating to the evaluation of direct mail, outbound telemarketing, direct response television and overall program measurement.