Award-Winning Blog


The Strength of Knowing What We Don’t Know

Kevin’s moving tribute to his father noted two essential traits for greatness in any profession –including fundraising: “He had a voracious appetite as a learner.   As smart as he was, his greatest strength was his humility in knowing the vastness of what he didn’t know.” We all need to work harder at harnessing the immense […]

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Is “Donor” the Best We Can Do?

My father died last week.   I rarely share personal details and especially not this personal.  I’m doing so now because he was a donor, though he’d never refer to himself that way. That begs the question of whether the “donor” label is so superficial as to be not only useless but counterproductive.  What if part […]

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Simone Says: “Why?…Why?…Why?

Wonderful stories abound as memories of Simone Joyaux flow across Fundraising Land. Here at the Agitator we counting our “Simone Blessings” and also checking our archives.  We came across this post from a few years back that illustrates how Simone’s curiosity and constant questioning helped keep us all on our toes in an effort to her […]

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Simone Joyaux Is Dead

Simone Joyaux, a beloved shit-disturber and hell-raiser, who battled tirelessly to improve our sector by applying deep devotion, abundant energy, and development skills highly honed by outrage against injustice and inequality, is dead.   The 44-year veteran of board development, strategic planning and organizational management, died Sunday, May 2nd in Providence, Rhode Island of a […]

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Give Your Supporters a Break

Breaks are necessary for our sanity and productivity. Not exactly a breakthrough statement. Yet, we rarely follow that advice. How many back-to-back calls did you have this week? Can you remember how you felt after the last one? In a recent study, Microsoft examined the effects of back-to-back video calls on stress, and engagement. They […]

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Thank You Apple

Great news for privacy lovers.  More specifically, great news for Apple iPhone and iPad users who received a new privacy feature on Monday called App Tracking Transparency (ATT). This new feature is a significant step for user privacy because it gives Apple users more control over their mobile phone app data and how it’s used […]

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