Award Winning Blog - Agitator

The Naughty, The Nice & The Unappreciated

As gather my thoughts for today’s post I’m listening to John Prine’s Christmas in Prison.. Prine was just one of the great singer/songwriters we lost this year, along with so much else. As tempting as it is to call out all the failures, losses, grief, stress and mendacity heaped upon us in 2020 I’ll save […]

Learn More December 21, 2020

How Do You Solve Fundraising Problems And Innovate?

Our bias on innovation is simple. True innovation comes from understanding people. The important question is how do you go about understanding people? What’s the method of thinking? This rubric or matrix is our way of thinking about thinking and importantly, linking thinking to doing. And if it’s true that the meek borrow and genius […]

Learn More December 18, 2020

Going Postal: December Update

Pickle wants to eat the UPS Driver. Pickle is a mini-Pitbull we rescued early in the pandemic. His breed’s tendency is to be overly protective. So, when the brown UPS truck comes bouncing and rattling up the lane Pickle’s guard dog genes go into overdrive as he bounds and barks his way to block the […]

Learn More December 16, 2020

Is Using the Statistical Average Bad for Nonprofits?

Can a statistic be bad? Maybe “bad” is a bit of an an overstatement but the “Average”, a universally used statistic can sure hide a lot. And without assigning malice or intent to the “hiding”, reliance on the average as an input to decision making can result in lots of bad outcomes. There are countless examples, […]

Learn More December 14, 2020

How to Know If Your TM or F2F Sustainer Acquisition Meets Donor Needs

Over forty years of research and theory show people have three basic, psychological needs. Satisfying these needs makes donors more likely to stick around. The three are: Competence – feelings of effectiveness. For donors, it could mean feeling like they’re making a positive difference. It could also mean learning something new, for example, information about […]

Learn More December 11, 2020

Reverse Engineering Your Way to Donor Centricity

Understanding the why of human behavior is best unearthed with data straight from our donors. We call it zero-party, that which is voluntarily and knowingly given, typically via a survey. Contrary to the opinion of many, surveys are the best way to measure motivation and needs and innate traits that play a large role in […]

Learn More December 9, 2020