Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Emotion and Fundraising: Will Any Emotion Do?

“People give based on emotion, not facts.” Some version of that statement is sacrosanct in marketing and fundraising. It begs several questions, not least of which is whether emotion is the cause or the goal. We know it to be the latter. But today’s post is to beg another question: what emotion? Will any emotion […]

Learn More September 28, 2020

How Do You Get Conservatives to Care As Much as Liberals About the Environment?

Answer: message to them differently. More specifically, conservatives and liberals can see themselves as equally moral (Identity) but for very different reasons. Much like there is a Big 5 of Personality that is trait-based and predictive of attitudes and beliefs (and in turn, behavior), there is another Big 5 in Morality that, not surprisingly, has […]

Learn More September 25, 2020

The Cheap Money Paradox

The pandemic should cause us all to re-think many fundraising “norms” –notably the value of money and what it means not only to donors but to nonprofits as well. In order to stimulate a Covid-stricken economy the U.S. Federal Reserve (and central banks elsewhere) has dramatically lowered interest rates and promised to keep them low […]

Learn More September 23, 2020

Should You Put the Next Dollar on Brand Building or Direct Response?

The answer is $.60 on brand, $.40 on direct response. Why? Because, as the curve below shows, that 60:40 split produces the optimum long-term benefit. The most financially beneficial, long-term effects are about growth, defined as profit and market share, not volume growth which is often a short-term activity delivering little to no improvement in […]

Learn More September 21, 2020

Seize This Digital Day

The Agitator firmly believes that as the economic and psychological pandemic fallout grows deeper and darker, so grows the need for greater and greater understanding and use of evidence-based testing and research. This is especially true in all things digital. If ever there were a time for disciplined testing, reporting and sharing of online fundraising […]

Learn More September 18, 2020

Cluster F****: Part Two

Our initial, Cluster F*** post wasn’t written with a sequel in mind but today’s example presented itself and thus a sequel was born. The most important part of the prior post and of this one as well is that the variables chosen to create these statistical clusters are all-important in creating (or avoiding) the garbage […]

Learn More September 16, 2020

Award-Winning Blog

Emotion and Fundraising: Will Any Emotion Do?