The first-ever annual giving content available on iTunes features excerpts of interviews from Bob's monthly Annual Giving Roundtable Web seminar series. Each month, Bob will add a new interview available for free access. The first available interview excerpts include the following:

Joanne Troutman, Director of the Susquehanna University Fund, on her use of pre-call postcards, year-end donor lists, and a name-the-sandwich-after-yourself young alumni appeal.

Bill Vasko, Action Mailing Corporation In his first-ever podcast appearance Bill discusses his views on the future of direct mail, a suggested appeal calendar for the year, and some of his favorite appeal ideas.

John Taylor, Advancement Services Guru on the correct ways to count alumni participation, and the not-so-correct ways as well.

If you are already an iTunes user, you can access Bob's interviews via the iTunes Store at this Web address: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=268639739

If you're not an iTunes user, you can still listen to all of Bob's interviews via the archive on Bob's Web site (just use the link below).

Keep track of all of the latest published annual-giving-related news via Bob's news feed. It's located on the Bob Burdenski Web site and it's updated every day with news related to fundraising and annual giving.

The news feed is free and it captures the latest annual giving-related news stories from hundreds of publications from around the world. Included in the feed are articles about alumni giving, social Web networking, telemarketing, philanthropy, demographics, prospect research, direct marketing, email strategies, and many more topics.

Read a little or read a lot, but now treat yourself to a daily annual giving update.

For four years, Bob has been sharing the latest annual giving news, samples and opinions via his "Latest Annual Giving Departures" e-newsletter. Now you can browse the content of all of them, through a new-and-improved archive on Bob's Web site.

Read the full text of annual giving-related news articles, download actual samples of annual giving-related letters and brochures from successful fundraising institutions, links to noteworthy online strategies, "best of" ideas and comments from FundList postings, and much more. Miss an issue of the "Latest Annual Giving Departures?" You'll find it in the archive.

Web-based videos, flashes and other related appeals continue to be incorporated into annual giving program strategies. The standard disclaimers still apply for any type of annual giving appeal -- if you can't evaluate it, don't do it. Having said that, here are some of our current multimedia favorites...

The University of Miami Alumni Association uses its mascot, Sebastian, to send a thank you message to supporters.

An MIT Power of Participation Web site that tracks the university's young alumni annual giving participation challenge, with up-to-date results, donors, polling and more.

A Boston College flash thank you message features a performance by the Boston College Symphonic Band and a direct link to the donor honor roll.

An interactive complete-the-puzzle flash appeal from Milton Academy that shows the impact that "pieces" of all sizes can have on the Academy.

A Marietta College flash appeal notes the many great things that are happening on campus, and notes that the Marietta Fund helps make all of them possible.

Bye-bye, checks, hello, debit cards. Consumers are replacing checks with plastic and other electronic payments at an accelerating pace, a new Federal Reserve study says.

Electronic payments -- including credit and debit cards -- accounted for more than two-thirds of the 93.3 billion noncash transactions in the U.S. last year. That has been increasing at a 12.4% annual pace since 2003. The Fed's prior payments study found that in 2003 the number of electronic and check payments was roughly equal.

The total value of all noncash payments last year was $75.8 trillion, growing at a 4.6% rate since 2003. Debit cards are now the most frequently used type of electronic payment, surpassing credit cards, the Fed said. Consumers made about 25.3 billion debit transactions -- about $1 trillion worth -- compared with 21.7 billion credit-card purchases valued at $2.1 trillion.

The study, based on a survey of financial institutions and payment processors, said the number of checks paid out by banks has been declining at a 6.4% annual rate from 2003 to 2006.

When an old classmate called Rob Matarangas and squeezed him for a significant donation to a Bellarmine College Prep scholarship fund, he was hard-pressed to say no. That meant he sent a bigger check to Bellarmine this year than his wife, Gigi, sent to her alma mater, Presentation High School. And that didn't include the money they sent to Bellarmine's annual fundraising fashion show at the Fairmont Hotel - even though they can't attend.

At 156 years old, Bellarmine is a high school champion in financial donations, far outpacing the South Bay's two all-girls high schools, Notre Dame in downtown San Jose and Presentation in Willow Glen. In the past year alone, Bellarmine received about $9.8 million in total gift revenue. It's taken Notre Dame 10 years to raise $12 million.

"Bellarmine makes an enormous effort to make you feel attached as a community," said Matarangas, who said they promise to write a bigger check to Presentation next year. The disparity between Bellarmine's alumni donations and those of local girls high schools illustrates the difference between how women and men give and what it means for the prosperity of same-sex schools in the Bay Area. It also provides a guide for cash-crunched schools to reach out to alumni pocketbooks.

"Women just don't have a history of doing this," Presentation Principal Mary Miller said. "Less than 100 years ago, women didn't have the right to vote. Women in this generation should be at a level of giving totally different than their mother or grandmother's generation."

The Alumni Association Board of Directors will mark the 10th anniversary of DePauw University's Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) Program by matching all Annual Fund gifts by alumni in the classes of 1998 - 2008.

The Alumni Association Board of Directors is made up of 55 members nominated by DePauw alumni. "By creating this challenge, our message to young alumni is clear: You are a vital part of DePauw," announced Lisa Henderson Bennett, 1993 DePauw graduate and Alumni Board president. "The Alumni Board is focused on both supporting your continued growth and backing your participation of any amount in the Annual Fund this year. Young alumni participation is critical to our aspiration that we crest the 40% alumni participation mark soon."

The Alumni Board Participation Challenge for Graduates of the Last Decade is an important aspect of the GOLD EC Arch10th anniversary celebration, which will include GOLD events in ten cities this year. Expanded GOLD programming kicked off with a GOLDen Opportunities event in August, featuring the professional development advice of Tim Solso '69 and other alumni leaders.

"I'm excited to see our board focusing on young alumni," says Toby Butler, 2004 DePauw graduate and one of twelve GOLD members on the Alumni Board. "What's special about this challenge is its emphasis on staying a part of DePauw, and giving to the Annual Fund is an easy way to do this. Any young alum is eligible for the match, regardless of the amount given. After all, a lot of 'little bits' can make a huge impact on a lot of what we loved about DePauw."

Adds Marcus Veatch '75, chair of the Alumni Board Development Committee, "Since the tuition dollars that students pay cover less than half of the cost of a DePauw education, the Alumni Board has long emphasized the importance of giving back to keep the benefits of a DePauw education accessible. As a board whose membership spans across several decades of graduation including GOLD, we always achieve 100% Annual Fund participation through our 'personal best' gifts. We are excited to share the spirit of this tradition with young alumni."