Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Do Your Donors Want To or Have To?

How many New Year’s resolutions start with, “This year, I’m going to exercise more regularly”? And of those, how many play out like this: Day one: You’re a fitness god. The gym is your temple. You practically high-five strangers on the treadmill. Day two: Reality hits. Muscles you didn’t know existed are staging a rebellion. […]

Learn More January 6, 2025

Holiday Hiatus: Even Agitators Need a Nap

Friends, readers, and fellow troublemakers, As the holidays descend like a herd of caffeinated reindeer, we at The Agitator are pausing our relentless drumbeat of wit and wisdom. Yes, even agitators need a little time to recharge and reflect. So, from now until… let’s say “a week-ish” (because precision is for grant proposals, not holiday […]

Learn More December 20, 2024

“Nonprofitness” Is a Verb—And You’re Not the Only One Doing It

Ask any donor: What makes a nonprofit, well, nonprofit? Is it the tax status? The actors involved? The actions they take? Or is it the lofty goals they pursue? Spoiler alert: It’s not the tax code, the org chart, or your stellar board of directors. It’s something far more elemental and far less tied to […]

Learn More December 18, 2024

Giving by Algorithm: When Metrics Miss the Mark

There’s a scene I can’t shake. A small-town food pantry, shelves half-empty, volunteers stretching every last dollar to feed neighbors they’ve known their whole lives. The kind of place where a $100 gift isn’t a drop in the ocean—it’s the ocean. The scene came roaring back when I […]

Learn More December 16, 2024

Attribution Gone Wild: How $100 Becomes $400

Picture this: A mid-size nonprofit spends $783K across channels and raises $3.1M. Pretty straightforward, right? But here’s where it gets interesting – and by interesting, I mean messy. Let’s look at what each channel claimed versus what actually happened: Take a moment with those numbers. The platforms are claiming $7.27M in revenue from activities that […]

Learn More December 13, 2024

Beware of Old Tricks, Not Dogs

For years, in The Agitator and as a principal in a direct response fundraising firm, I’ve held firm in my opposition to two types of fees: those based on volume, and the traditional 15% commission fee for purchasing and placement of media. I oppose them for one simple reason: they align the incentives with the […]

Learn More December 11, 2024