6. Stop harassing behavior from creditors.

Some creditors do not always take right course of action when attempting to collect a debt. Often, creditors will persistently call home of a particular debtor with demeaning and abusive behavior. Not only is this unethical it can rise to level of unlawful. In essence, bankruptcy will put on hold demands of many creditors and stop harassing phone calls and other inappropriate behavior all together.

7. Restore or prevent your utilities from being shut off.

As you have probably seen many of these reasons overlap. Some lead to another. If your home is in risk of foreclosure then your utility bill may also be in risk of being terminated. Filing bankruptcy can prevent utility company from leaving you in dark.

8. Provide help for large amounts of student loan debt. <student loans>

While it is true that your student loans will not be eliminated like several other types of unsecured debt, bankruptcy can consolidate your student loan debt. This consolidation will allow a debtor to make monthly payments through Chapter 13 Bankruptcy that are within financial ability of debtor.

9. End wage garnishments.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy will stop wage garnishment. Wage garnishment basically takes away your weekly earnings often times leaving you without necessities. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy allows you to purchase necessities for you and your family. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy will also help in this regard.

10. Challenge certain claims of fraudulent creditors.

Bankruptcy will allow you to challenge these claims from creditors who are trying to collect more money from you than you really owe. An attorney can provide support and backing you will need to step up to these creditors. Attorneys often even playing field between a big creditor and a single debtor. Filing bankruptcy with an attorney can stop fraudulent reporting by a creditor.

3. Make a test mailing of your direct mail package to your donor prospect list, and keep in mind that in direct mail solicitations all new mailings are a test. So don't invest large sums of money into this endeavor until you're relatively sure that you can get a good return on your investment. Whether you are currently using direct mail or not, all your new mailings are for finding what's called "new acquisitions" which are needed by you to obtain more funds from your direct mail program each year.

4. Evaluate vary carefully results of each of your test mailings for new donor acquisitions, and if your mailing earns a slight profit, simply breaks even, or perhaps even loses a little money you may be able to still call your test a success. In fact, if you spend $1.25 or a little more for every dollar you raise consider your test a success, because when you renew these donors, that is mail to them again, you can easily get 80-90% of them to make another gift. This is where you'll really earn your profits from direct mail solicitations.

5. Build upon your direct mail successes by "renewing" your donors each year, that is getting them to make another gift. And continue to seek new donors to keep your direct mail list growing and more profitable each year, because if you don't continue to build your list it will grow smaller each year since donors move and stop giving for a variety of reasons.

Yes a good annual direct mail program can produce a regular and growing source of revenue for your organization year after when this fundraising methods is effectively used. Now use these steps to help you set up, or expand your annual direct mail solicitation program to raise more of funds you need to better serve those who need you.

Berwyn J. Kemp is a development consultant who helps nonprofit organizations obtain funding. For a free subscription to his newsletter Nonprofit Funding Solutions you can visit: http://www.berwynkempassoc.citymax.com, or email bkempassoc@yahoo.com