Award Winning Blog - Agitator

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

Why Does Wikipedia Keep Doing It Like This?

For years now, as part of the donation request, Wikipedia informs us that most don’t give and acknowledges that most will ignore this request. As a behavioral scientist, I’m puzzled why they keep using this message and if they’ve ever tested it. Behavioral science is now very popular – maybe too popular for its own […]

Learn More September 14, 2020

Let’s Play A Game

Here’s a game for you, the professional fundraiser. Below is Wikipedia’s solicitation. It has been floating around for a while now, and, as a behavioral scientist, I wonder why they haven’t changed it yet. Can you spot the issues with this request? Tell us in the comments section what they are and what suggestions tied […]

Learn More September 11, 2020

The Great Telemarketing Comeback

In yesterday’s post, The Great Fundraising Comeback, I opined that in order to meet the future “we will need to start over”. I don’t mean begin from scratch—much of our knowledge and experience will prove durable and improvable– but I do mean we’ll be forced to look at first principles which means challenging virtually every […]

Learn More September 9, 2020

The Great Fundraising Comeback

It takes a mighty big catastrophe to break the stupor of complacency and take a hard, fresh look at the world around us—especially our world of fundraising. Even an event as jolting as the Great Recession of 2008 failed to knock more sense into most nonprofits. Of course we aren’t alone. For nearly 50 years […]

Learn More September 7, 2020

How Do You Find Out Why People Give?

For starters, don’t ask. Asking donors “why” they give tends to produce a lot of rationale or superficial answers. People are able to reliably cite their attitudes and provide insight on their experiences from interactions but rarely do they shed light on the cause of their behavior when directly prompted. A slightly better approach is […]

Learn More September 4, 2020