Mal's Bio

Mal Warwick, Founder and Chairman

Mal Warwick has distinguished himself through his contributions to the nonprofit sector as one of the world’s leading authors, consultants, and public speakers on direct response marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations and as an advocate for socially and environmentally responsible policies and practices in the private sector.

He is the author of Fundraising When Money is Tight: A Strategic and Practical Guide for Surviving Tough Times and Thriving in the Future, which was released in March 2009 by Jossey-Bass Publishers. This was Mal’s nineteenth book.

Mal is the founder and chairman of Mal Warwick Associates (Berkeley, CA, and Washington, DC), a fundraising agency specializing in direct response fundraising and marketing. The company has served nonprofit organizations since 1979. Mal also founded its sister company, Response Management Technologies, Inc., a data processing firm for nonprofit organizations, and was a co-founder of the telephone fundraising firm, Share Group, Inc. (Somerville, MA). In 1999, he co-founded Donordigital (San Francisco, CA), which assists nonprofit organizations with online fundraising, marketing, and advocacy. In 2008, Mal Warwick Associates reacquired Donordigital, and the two firms are now working in tandem to pioneer new approaches in integrated, multi-channel fundraising.

A serial entrepreneur, Mal has been active in promoting social and environmental responsibility in the business community nationwide for two decades. He is the co-author of Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006) with Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Along with Cohen and others, he was a co-founder of Business for Social Responsibility in 1992 and served on its board during its inaugural year. In 2001, after more than a decade as an active member of Social Venture Network, he was elected to its board and served as Chair (2002-2006). He also was a member of the Founding Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002-3.

Mal has written or edited a total of nineteen books, including the standard fundraising texts, Revolution in the Mailbox and How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters, both of which are now in second editions. His two books on fundraising strategy—The Five Strategies for Fundraising Success and (with Steve Hitchcock) Ten Steps to Fundraising Success—are in use throughout the world as strategic planning guides for nongovernmental organizations.

He edits the free monthly electronic newsletter, Mal Warwick's Newsletter: Successful Direct Mail, Telephone & Online Fundraising™, which has 11,000 subscribers in 69 countries. He is widely in demand as speaker and workshop leader throughout the world. Mal has taught fundraising on six continents to nonprofit executives from more than 100 countries. He has spoken annually for extended periods at the International Fundraising Congress (The Netherlands), the International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation (Thailand, Malaysia, and India), the Hemispheric Congress on Fundraising (Mexico), and the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ International Conference on Fundraising (U.S.). He also speaks on the topic of socially responsible business at leading business schools in the USA as well as for groups of business owners and executives.

Among the hundreds of nonprofits Mal and his colleagues have served over the years are many of the nation's largest and most distinguished charities as well as six Democratic Presidential candidates and scores of small, local, and regional organizations. Collectively, Mal and his associates are responsible for raising at least half a billion dollars—largely in the form of small gifts from individuals.

Mal has played a leadership role in the fundraising and direct marketing fields both nationally and internationally. In 2009, he chaired the International Fundraising Congress Online, the world’s first virtual fundraising conference, involving more than 400 sites in 42 countries. Previously, in 2007-8, he served as Chair of that event’s sponsor, the international Resource Alliance (London, UK). The Resource Alliance is the organizer of the annual International Fundraising Congress in The Netherlands and a leading force globally in developing the fundraising capacity of nongovernmental organizations to build civil society. Having helped establish one of its two predecessor organizations in the early 1980s, he is also an active member of the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation (Washington, D.C.). He also served for ten years on the board of the Association of Direct Response Fundraising Counsel (Washington, D.C.), two of those years as President.

In 2004, Mal received the Hank Rosso Award as Outstanding Fundraising Executive from the Association of Fundraising Professionals Golden Gate Chapter and Northern California Grantmakers. In 2009, he was granted the Max L. Hart Nonprofit Leadership Award by the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation, in recognition of his lifetime contributions to direct marketing.

Mal chairs the board of Great Nonprofits (San Francisco, CA), which is partnering with major institutions to bring the voice of donors and volunteers to the forefront in evaluating the impact of nonprofit organizations. He is also a member of the advisory boards of several companies, including Mission Research (Lancaster, PA); GoldMail Inc. (San Francisco, CA); and Important Gifts LLC (New York, NY).

Mal was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador for more than three years in the 1960s. Since 1969 he has lived in Berkeley, California, where he is deeply involved in local community affairs. Early in the 1990s, he co-founded the Community Bank of the Bay, the nation’s fifth community development bank, and the Berkeley Community Fund, where he served on the board (with one year as its president) until 2006. He also served for 11 years as Vice-President of the Board of the Berkeley Symphony (1991-2002).

In 2006, Mal was awarded the Benajmin Ide Wheeler Medal by the Berkeley Community Fund as “Berkeley’s most useful citizen” in recognition of his lifetime contributions to the community. Mal joined environmental leader David Brower, celebrated chef and restaurateur Alice Waters, renowned orchestra conductor Kent Nagano, and other notable Berkeleyans as a recipient of the award.

He is the grandfather of Dayna, Iain, Matthew, Gwen, Andrew, Kaleb, and Benjamin.

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