Update on The Cunneen Company

Business here at The Cunneen Company has been bristling! We are quite busy with the launch of our fall campaigns. Having just reviewed the calendar with Jim Cunneen, my brother and partner in this business, he informs me that we will be breaking the 100 Stewardship/Offertory appeal mark in a week or so. Of these 100 appeals fully a quarter of them will be promoting electronic giving.

In addition to this business we will be guiding almost two dozen capital campaigns in the coming months. These campaigns range from small renovation campaigns to major building efforts. We have over 70 clients currently utilizing the firm for Pledge Redemption.

Most of our clients are currently Catholic parishes and Catholic Dioceses but we have an interesting mix of secular non profits currently making their way through the RFP/sales process.

Being in business in 2008 is a challenge! I always grind my teeth when the economy is weak in a presidential election year-this happened in 2004. The party seeking to unseat the incumbents exploits and exaggerates every bit of bad news for political advantage (I don't blame them but it does begin to have an impact on the economy, and the donors who we seek to motivate on behalf of our clients). The economy isn't great but it isn't nearly as bad as the politicians or the media will have us believe.

On my list of interesting "to do's" in the coming months I have:

9/29 A speech on Stewardship to the Catholic Diocese of St. Cloud, MN.
10/7 A speech to CT. Assoc. of Non Profits on Annual Fundraising and Major Gifts.
10/11-10/14 International Catholic Stewardship Conference in Chicago.
11/13 A speech to the CT. Philanthropy Day sponsored by AFP on "The Ask"-major gifts.
11/14 Remarks at Hamden Hall's "thanks to major donors" event.

There are a million additional items on the list including another trip to the mid-west for a major presentation on a Diocesan-wide offertory enhancement appeal as well as trips locally supporting our sales team and maintaining relationships with our core Diocesan markets.

Just figured I would take a few moments to give the reader a peak into a day in the life of our awesome company!