Award-Winning Blog


Most Charitable Nations. Most Charitable States

Each day we’re deluged with the updated stats on disease and death from the Coronavirus pandemic.  So, for a change of pace we thought it would be a relief to flip to some stats of a more uplifting variety The World Giving Index published by the Charities Aid Foundation , reports that for 2019 the […]

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Is the Donor Missing From Your Messaging?

We’ve got a simple recipe or heuristic for messaging.  It’s, Four parts donor (unique to the donor) 1 part your brand (unique to you) 1 part Issue X (not unique, lots of competition) While simple to write and deliver, even in the limited “real-estate” of a Facebook ad, the rigor lies in knowing the unique […]

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Giving Tuesday and Why We’re Killing It

Editor’s Note:  For those Agitator readers preparing for Giving Tuesday, there’s really no new advice necessary.  However, there’s plenty of seasoned advice that should be heeded. Thus we repeat this post written three years ago by Nick Ellinger. Giving Tuesday and The “When”  vs. “Why” of Giving I like the idea of Giving Tuesday very […]

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Does Using Bullsh$% Language Help or Hurt Giving?

I read a lot of academic studies.  A lot.  Most teeter on the edge of uninteresting, a rare few are truly breakthrough that cause us to re-think our thinking.  None however, until now, read like a spoof article from The Onion.  The title of that study is, “Bullshit-sensitivity predicts prosocial behavior”. I read the abstract […]

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Compassion is Spreading as Fast as The Virus. Or is it?

The winter surge of the coronavirus pandemic and consequent lockdowns are upon us–as is the Fundraising Pandemic Paradox. On the one hand countless boards, CEOs continue to expect nonprofits to do badly and therefore have cut budgets and staff.  On the other hand, many organizations are now doing much better than ever giving the lie […]

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Dewey Defeats Truman!

Conventional wisdom and a veteran political analyst who had predicted the winner in four of the five prior presidentials leading up to this 1948 election were clear; not only would Dewey win but Republicans would retain control of the House and Senate.   Dewey of course lost and the Democrats won control of both chambers. What […]

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