CDR Fundraising Group in Bowie, Md., has been sold to direct marketing entrepreneur James Moore. In the fundraising space, Moore already owns Barton Cotton in Baltimore, Md., Bernard Data Solutions in Broomfield, Colo., and Resource One in Tulsa, Okla.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sources told The NonProfit Times that CDR’s net revenue was roughly $9 million.
Geoffrey W. Peters, president & CEO of CDR, will remain in that capacity, the company announced. Trying to keep the deal low-key, in a memo going to clients the sale was the third item on the list.
“The company itself will continue to operate as usual — with the same name, the same staff, the same values and in the same fashion as previously,” according to the memo, signed by Peters. “I will remain president and CEO of CDR. We truly don’t expect any changes in the way in which we operate, except that we may have some new opportunities to provide additional services to our clients that we could not offer before,” he wrote.
CDR is an employee-owned company and Moore purchased the stock of the company from the ESOP Trust.
CDR has “more than 30” clients, according to Peters. It was co-founded in 1982 by Ray Grace, who died of esophageal cancer in April 2009, and Jerry Kennedy who retired roughly 10 years ago. There have been several high-level executive changes at CDR during the past two years.
CDR purchased MINDset Direct in Arlington, Va., but the firms parted ways in less than a year. Marketing and direct response television (DRTV) expert Jo Sullivan joined the firm last year from the ASPCA in New York City. She, too, recently left the firm. Nancy Withbroe left the firm last year after about two years to join Share Our Strength in Washington, D.C., where she was recently promoted to senior director, development.
CDR recently doubled its office space to accommodate expanded staff specializing in monthly sustaining donors, DRTV, management of inbound telemarketing, online acquisition and analytics.
CDR clients include Wounded Warrior Project, the Marines Toys for Tots Foundation and Christian Appalachian Project, which was CDR’s first client.
