Hold the champagne: working overtime because of Congressional turnover.

The mid-term election during which the Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress brings new challenges to a nonprofit sector which now must switch gears to fight the same battles.

A change in lawmakers does not instantly reverse the largest budget deficit and debt in the nation's history. And even though the key issue seemed to be getting the troops home from Iraq, for the foreseeable future the military will continue to tap the treasury at the annual rate of roughly $300 billion.

Sure, a change in Congress feels like the relief experienced when you transfer the burgeoning balance on your main credit card to a different account. But 30 days later, that bill still comes due. It's just in a different wrapper.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the presumptive Speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes, has an agenda for the first 100 hours. All of the items will cost money. President George W. Bush can still operate a veto pen. Although he's only taken it out for a test drive once in six years, if he uses it again, Congress does not have an automatic override head count.

Any visions of sugar plums of earmarks and tax credits charity officials have dancing around in their heads will probably be dashed. Even if there is bipartisan cooperation, the federal government's credit card just might be at its limit.

The first steps nonprofits must take don't involve new legislation. The priority is firming up previous relationships and educating all of the potentially more than 70 freshmen members of Congress. At this writing, the change is eight in the Senate and 52 in the House with 10 House races still too close to call and being contested. Many of the Democrats elected ran on very conservative issues, so you can't assume that the charitable sector will be at the top of the priority pile.

Some sector thinkers believe that legislation that has been stalled for years, including workforce investment and higher education and the CARE Act, will see some movement. But again, it will be weighed against the federal budget deficit.

In the Senate, Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) will lose his chairmanship of the Finance Committee, but that's not going to change the legislative body's activism on charitable reform. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will get the chair appointment and he has been in near lock-step with Grassley on investigating and regulating the charitable sector via tax legislation.

Baucus has not been in lock-step with Grassley on the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, Independent Sector's creation at Grassley's urging. Any influence the Panel might have had with the Senate Finance Committee will be tested early as legislators look to close budget deficits.

The election probably will have little impact on the president's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Leaders of churches and faith-based organizations have been waiting for the windfall of federal cash since the office's inception. It has never been that fountain. Initially nothing more than a political arm of the White House, under its second director Jim Towey it moved to training churches on how to develop 501(c)(3) organizations to apply and compete for federal grants and programs. There's no reason that should stop because of the change in Congress.

President Bush has two years left in office and so many of the election victories were by razor-thin margins that the process just might be repeated in two years. The planning for preserving and enhancing the sector's influence on Capitol Hill should start now.

The campaigns are over and it's now time to govern. These new members of Congress are going to quickly find that life isn't all champagne and barbecue.

Sticky situation

Charities have used the return address label as a premium long before self-adhesive. You had to lick the backs of the original, vintage premiums. Sometimes they'd stick. Sometimes you had to use tape to keep them in place.

Zip from the old days to last week. One renewal and two donor acquisition packages arrived in the mail at home. All three included return address labels. They were added to the stack already in the desk.

It left me wondering when I would spend enough money that would cause me to write the number of checks it would take to exhaust the current supply. Of course, they could be used on holiday cards and other entries into the U.S. Postal system. They could be used to hold up sagging socks or to affix a computer cable to the floor.

My collection of labels now numbers more than 2,700. That's the count before the holiday season starts and the personalized adhesives start arriving at a quicker pace. They are adorned with flags, pets, baseballs, scripted letters and in some cases just the name and address.

I started thinking that even for someone like me, who does not pay bills electronically, labels are useless. Now, before every direct response expert on the planet slaps their own label on a letter telling me what to do with my labels, I'll admit that in most cases they still work as fundraising premiums.

Non-premium acquisition on many levels does not do as well as an introduction with a premium of some kind. It's a fact that's been tested time and time again. And as we all know, that first gift is the foot in the door to, well, more labels.

We are stuck with labels for a while. The question is, what's the next low-cost, low-tech premium going to be and will it have the same run as the return address label?

Charities that rely on premiums during the next few years must come up with the next label package. Premiums are getting out of control, with umbrellas, comforters and other expensive items going out to lure fresh donors into the support system. Labels were a natural. Everyone used the U.S. Postal Service. Yes, the experts have been predicting the demise of the mail system since the first email account was opened. But somehow direct mail has continued to increase.

Knowledgeable donors can always use a personalized, email account branded by a charity. It would generate an instant viral campaign. Every donor would receive an account and the emails would begin. Many charities already use a constituent relationship management software of one sort or another. Why restrict it to someone who has already contacted you via email or signed up online for an event?

Evolve and enhance direct response by going electronic. Send an acquisition or renewal package that includes access to a branded email account. That's the next mailing label.