With all the talk lately about this year’s meltdown in the financial markets, it’s easy to get caught up in negative talk about how bad things are, and how long it will take for conditions to improve.  I found myself guilty of this behavior last weekend when I tried to bargain down someone who was selling merchandise to raise money to buy clothes for the homeless.  Fortunately, the woman came up with a creative solution – she gave me the item I was considering buying but asked that I buy socks to donate instead in an amount equal to the purchase price.

While our portfolios have suffered and for those of us who are lucky to still have jobs, skimping on giving to people who need help and charitable organizations is not a good way to respond.  Even if we can’t do as much as we’d like, surely we can do something.  An interesting example is the recently launched GiveList, which offers ideas for making contributions during the holiday season in ways other than financial donations.

While we don’t know how nonprofit organizations will survive the current climate, we do know that in the past, donations have usually continued to flow during good and bad times.  In Katya Andresen’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog, Network for Good is providing a free e-book with 45 pages of strategies on how to “survive and thrive in a down economy.”

Another theme I’ve seen in many places is to remember to thank your donors, and show them what a difference their help makes.   Make sure you take the time to personalize auto-responders and that you take extra time to acknowledge long term contributors.  Here’s some tips in the Art of Donor Retention.

Here’s a wonderful post from personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly on Why Charitable Giving is Even More Important During an Economic Downturn

We may need to work harder to survive during this recession, but it’s important that we stay positive and think creatively in our fundraising and marketing campaigns.