Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Year-End Appeals Are Never Routine When The Republic Is At Stake

I’ve been digging through advocacy copy I wrote in the early 1970s, when the country was in upheaval. Not exactly like today, but a frighteningly similar era of turmoil, media spectacle, and debates about victimhood and radicalization. Back then, we witnessed a series of violent confrontations between government forces and protesters, prisoners, and activists. The […]

Learn More September 17, 2025

Your Appeal Calendar vs. Human Time

On a spreadsheet, every house-file mailing that clears “revenue > cost” looks like a win. Under scrutiny, a lot of that “win” evaporates. In two large field experiments, simply telling donors to expect another campaign later reduced current giving. The control condition raised about 60% more than letters that primed for future asks, and the […]

Learn More September 15, 2025

Snake Oil, Plain Tofu, and the Broken Compass of Fundraising

It never fails. Every few years some bright-eyed consultant with a PowerPoint addiction announces they’ve cracked the code on donors. Not by, say, asking donors what they care about. Not by measuring what they actually do. No, no—by asking if they’ve ever used a rotary phone, or sent a postcard, or listened to music on […]

Learn More September 12, 2025

Gen Z to Save the Day

“There is a revolution under way . . . It is now spreading with amazing rapidity, and already our laws, institutions, and social structure are changing in consequence. Its ultimate creation could be a higher reason, a more human community, and a new and liberated individual. This is the revolution of the new generation.” This was written 51 […]

Learn More September 10, 2025

Responsive Multiples: The Donors You Can’t Treat Like Clones

After a first gift, most donors fall into two camps. The majority never give again. The next most common group gives exactly once a year, the Mode of 1. But there’s a third group. Smaller, more valuable, and more complex. They’re the donors open to giving more than once a year and we call them […]

Learn More September 8, 2025

Meet Your Most Common Donor

If you had to bet in Vegas on what happens after someone makes their first gift to your organization, what odds would you give? Most likely outcome? They never give again. About 60% likelihood. This is donor turning into a non-donor. Next most likely outcome? They give once a year, not twice, not three times, […]

Learn More September 5, 2025