Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Do You Fundraise At or With?

Does your fundraising ask who should I send this appeal to or what appeal should I send to this person? Fundraising at vs. fundraising with. It’s the difference between involving and connecting versus hoping that people give you the mental time to see themselves in your appeal. Most won’t. We also call it bookend fundraising, […]

Learn More August 14, 2024

Hand Size and Fundraising Success

A belief, once firmly held, is hard to change, even when the evidence and data overwhelmingly refute that belief. Take male hand size. We all know it correlates with…lower fumble rate among NFL Quarterbacks (what were you thinking?) Every year the NFL evaluates college players and their pro worthiness with something called the “combine”. One […]

Learn More August 12, 2024

People Are Different, Does Your Test Design Ignore This?

Hidden in many “losing” test results is a test idea that worked for some people and not others. Here are experiment results for World Vision among prospective donors randomly split into the control with altruism messaging and a test with self-interest messaging. Nothing to see here. The test lost. Discard, move on…unless you designed your […]

Learn More August 9, 2024

Boost Your Results with Virtual Engagement

Some days I wish I could call an emergency meeting of all Agitator readers, if for no other reason than to get your immediate reaction to one or another of our most insane ideas—or at least Kevin’s insane ideas. That was my wish exactly 11 years ago this week. In a the post Meet With […]

Learn More August 7, 2024

Harris Defeats Trump. Trump Defeats Harris.

Conventional wisdom and a veteran political analyst who had predicted the winner in four of the five prior presidential races leading up to this 1948 election were clear; not only would Dewey win but Republicans would retain control of the House and Senate. Dewey of course lost and the Democrats won control of both chambers. […]

Learn More August 5, 2024

Activism’s Double-Edged Sword

Social activism and creating a “movement” is hard work, made harder by a conflicting reality. More extreme actions, often effective at gaining (media) attention and increasing pressure on organizations or institutions, are likely to reduce popular support. What constitutes ‘extreme’? Is it in the eye of the beholder or context dependent? Blocking highways may be […]

Learn More August 2, 2024