Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Giving Donors a Sense of Choice and Volition

We know many donors would give more if they could direct where their gift went (see, for example, here and here). Yet restricted giving is a giant pain for most fundraisers. What if you could get most of the advantages of restricted giving without the disadvantages? Directing a gift fosters a sense of autonomy and […]

Learn More February 12, 2021

TESTING: Best Practices-Part 2

It may well be time for you to break the “test only one thing at a time” rule. This is especially true if you’re trying to move from local improvement to a globally significant breakthrough as covered in Kevin’s earlier post (Locally or Globally?) Perhaps you’ll want to do some message testing on donor Identity…or […]

Learn More February 10, 2021

Quality or Quantity Sustainers?

Way too much fundraising has an implicit “Or” that creates a false choice between Quantity or Quality of the donor. You’ll want to register for the upcoming sustainer webinar to learn how we can go from “Or” to “And” and hear from The Atlanta Humane Society, and One&All on how to apply behavioral science to get […]

Learn More February 8, 2021

TESTING: Best Practices- Part 1

In his post Locally or Globally Kevin emphasized the importance of testing that gets you beyond the usual confines of the “locally optimized” (same old, familiar, more of the same) to a ‘globally optimized” (a true re-think of what you’re testing) world of testing. Over the years we’ve written a lot about testing practices and […]

Learn More February 5, 2021

Locally or Globally?

Part of me would prefer this post be about “all politics are local”, or “to think globally, act locally”, or some other bumper sticker phraseology. Alas, it’s about a theoretical and practical problem that won’t neatly fit on your bumper. What if your best practice, or your best statistical model, or your best appeal, or […]

Learn More February 3, 2021

Bernie’s Magic Mittens and Abusing Your Donor

One of the light and bright photo by-products of the horrid trifecta of January events in Washington, D.C. – Insurrection, Impeachment, Inauguration—was the terrific photo of Senator Bernie Sanders seated at the Inauguration swathed in parka and hand-knit mittens. Of course it didn’t take long before that photo was transformed into an endless stream of mostly […]

Learn More February 1, 2021