Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Behavioral Design Lab: Fixing your donate page abandon rate

Most people – 8 out of 10 – who make it to your donation page don’t donate. You’re losing 80% of your potential donations. Why? Do we really think people stopped caring between the decision and the action? They lost their motivation, that much is clear. But where did it go? The fuel of motivation […]

Learn More March 31, 2021

F2F – More Bees with Honey (and stings too)

Face-to -face fundraising is a tough business, full of rejection. Although your direct mail appeal gets rejected at an even higher rate (unopened, non-response) it’s less personal, less in your face (literally). Fundraisers need to be resilient. If you can’t handle rejection, you can’t handle the gig. As a relevant aside, DVCanvass (our F2F and […]

Learn More March 29, 2021

URGENCY: Fundraising’s Double Edge

Among the Agitator/DonorVoice behavioral science principles related fundraising is that of urgency. A sense of urgency signals the relative importance of a task, tackles our procrastination and motivates us to act. On the other hand our behavioral scientists sound this warning: “Deadlines are often used to signal urgency, but they might backfire. Long deadlines give […]

Learn More March 26, 2021

The Postal Wolf Is At Your Door

This is an urgent postal alert. If your organization uses the U.S. Mail for fundraising, membership development, or communications you should be taking action today. Let me explain. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is expected to announce its next rate increase — a whooping 6% to 8.5% depending on the class of mail—by the […]

Learn More March 24, 2021

4 Cognitive Bias Myths

One restaurant is half full, the other empty, which one would you choose? To help us reach a decision faster we use mental shortcuts (known as “cognitive biases”). In this case we’re likely to judge the quality of the restaurant (food, service, ambiance etc.) simply by the number of customers we see dining there. Biases lead to […]

Learn More March 22, 2021

Using Cost of Fundraising to Turn Lead into Gold

Like anxious parents approaching their kid with the inevitable discussion about sex, many boards, CEOs and even some fundraisers dread talking to donors about fundraising costs. Over the years, especially in times of scandal, we’ve written literally dozens of posts on how to talk to donors about fundraising costs. Our bottom-line advice: “Don’t be one […]

Learn More March 19, 2021

Award-Winning Blog

Behavioral Design Lab: Fixing your donate page abandon rate