Award Winning Blog - Agitator

How to Move Your Donor Comms Plan From “More” to “Better” in 4 Steps

Imagine, instead of GDPR or opt-in requirements or any of the byzantine rules you may have on who to communicate to and when, the new rule was this: You aren’t allowed to communicate without knowing something meaningful about the person you were writing to? ‘Meaningful’ doesn’t mean a description of what they are, e.g. age, […]

Learn More August 17, 2020

Is Your Donor Angry or Dissatisfied?

Is your donor angry or dissatisfied? Hopefully donor dissatisfaction and anger are rare in your organization though first year retention rates make a pretty strong argument for dissatisfaction being a major concern. Service failures can take many forms – e.g. name spelled wrong, sending too many solicitations, leading donors to wonder if their donation was […]

Learn More August 14, 2020

After 2000 Years, Your Chance to Make Matching Gift History

Today we’re serving a helping of Roman history paired with the an elixir to lift your pandemic depressed spirits by helping an association of fundraisers in New Zealand that’s in dire straits. Over the years we’ve offered up dozens of posts on Matching Gifts – the do’s, don’ts and effective alternatives. But, horror of horrors, […]

Learn More August 12, 2020

How Do We Get the Damn Envelope Opened?

It is as true as it is unhelpful to note that the outer envelope (OE) must be opened before someone can pay attention to the insides and send back the reply form or not (almost always, not…). There is certainly a lot of envelope testing done, no disputing that. But, is there any theory guiding […]

Learn More August 10, 2020

In Their Own Words: Satisfaction and Frustration in the Donor Experience

When donors have their psychological needs satisfied, they’re more likely to give and keep giving because they’ll really want to. We previously talked about donors’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. As a quick refresher: autonomy refers to feelings of choice and volition; competence to feelings of making a positive difference, and relatedness […]

Learn More August 7, 2020

Death of the US Postal Service Exaggerated

Thought we’d bring some of the old band back for this timely topic—the state of the US Postal Service and the deliverability of direct mail. In simpler times—say 2019— the U.S. Postal Service was not a political football. But as with so many of 2020’s “features,” that’s where we are. Thankfully, much of the harshest […]

Learn More August 5, 2020