Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Your Acquisition Model Needs to See Other People

Dating apps and fundraising co-ops have something in common: both promise to find your next great match while also having a strong tendency to keep everyone competing for the same people. A couple field experiments testing how dating app design affects swiping (i.e. selection) is instructive. Most dating app swipes are dominated by photos and […]

Learn More November 9, 2026

Stop Treating Annual Donors Like Underachievers

One. That’s the modal number of gifts per year from your one-off donors. File averages hover around 1.6. If you get a donor to give twice, you’re a hero. The prevailing method for earning that cape has been volume, early and often. Consider a close encounters moment. If an alien were told to get humans to […]

Learn More November 6, 2026

Donating Shouldn’t Require Target Practice

Your donor has decided to give but has your donation form decided to test their fine motor skills? Somewhere between the tiny button and the accidental tap, a fundraising problem becomes a design problem. In 1954, psychologist Paul Fitts demonstrated a relationship that still matters to anyone building a donation page: smaller, farther targets take […]

Learn More November 4, 2026

Mobile Giving and the Department of Me

You hear “mobile optimization” and likely think make the text readable, shorten the form, enlarge the button. But the device may also change what message works best. We’ve given considerably more thought to where the donor’s finger goes than where their attention goes. Our phones are highly personal possessions, holding conversations, photos, favorite music and […]

Learn More November 2, 2026

We Hired a Robot to Thank You. You’re Welcome.

Dear Mary, Thank you for your generous gift. We know how much this cause means to you as we remember your grandson’s illness, your family’s experience, and the extraordinary loyalty you’ve shown over the years. Your generosity means the world to us. With warmest personal regards, Your Development Director Lovely note. Personal and heartwarming […]

Learn More October 30, 2026

Please Adjust Your Donors to Fit the Appeal

The Air Force built its cockpits around the average pilot. In 1950, it started collecting new measurements to update the design and the averages. A researcher, Gilbert Daniels, had a more fundamental question: how many pilots actually matched the average? Zero out of 4,063. A pilot could be average height with long arms and short […]

Learn More October 28, 2026