Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Identity and Need Satisfaction (should) go hand in hand

I’m a Canadian. A behavioral scientist. A fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins. A husband. The son of a parent afflicted with cancer. These are some examples of the identities I hold. Identities refer to important social roles, relationships, attitudes, and passions that people use to describe themselves. Everyone has various identities that are more or […]

Learn More July 6, 2020

On Stopping Hate for Profit

Just a week ago Mark Zuckerberg, who controls the social media sludge and sewage operation known as Facebook, held a call with advertisers where, according to The New York Times he struck a “defiant tone” as “he discussed the importance of freedom of speech and stressed his company would not bow to pressure on its […]

Learn More July 3, 2020

Dealing with Doubts About Legacy Giving in a Pandemic and Depression

Back in April, as the coronavirus pandemic was heating up, we raised some questions posed by many nonprofit board and fundraisers. Put bluntly the question, in its basest form was, “Should we be asking for legacy gifts right now, before the virus gets our donors?” We noted that a solid set of answers could be […]

Learn More July 1, 2020

Why Measuring Donor Satisfaction Isn’t Enough

The great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, argued knowledge cannot come from raw, sensory input alone; there must also be pre-existing, mental categories to sort and organize the sensory information. A modern-day Kantianism for our world is Data without theory is blind, but theory without data is empty. Let’s tackle the first part of this maxim […]

Learn More June 29, 2020

Embarrassed by Death. Educated by Hot Pants

“More than $1.4 billion in stimulus checks went to dead people, the Government Accountability Office said.” When I saw that headline in yesterday’s New York Times it was instantly clear to me that clearly the Trump administration is not using The Agitator Toolbox.. Let me explain. Seems like in the rush to inject money into […]

Learn More June 26, 2020

Whack-A-Mole Pandemic Effects and Results

In a seemingly breathless but not surprising headline — “Giving Plunges 6% in First Quarter, Signaling $25 Billion in Lost Revenue for Nonprofits“– the Chronicle of Philanthropy announced the release of the 2020 1st Quarter Fundraising Effectiveness Report (FEP) noting a decline in individual giving in March. Not a pretty picture. But, optimism continued to rule […]

Learn More June 24, 2020