Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Just Gimme Your Money

Kevin’s post on Getting Your Copy from Good to Better focuses on improving and optimizing direct response copy—generally understood by most fundraisers as the body copy of a direct mail letter or a digital appeal. Today’s post spotlights the most neglected—yet in many ways the most valuable—part of a fundraising appeal: The Response Form. Know […]

Learn More July 17, 2020

Getting Your Copy from Good to Great (or at least Better)

I was thumbing through a canary yellow, three ring binder, found while Covid cleaning. It had that musty paper smell and more than a few cobwebs. This book in binder is, 86 tutorials on Creating Fundraising Letters and Packages, and the author is Jerry Huntsinger, who we’ve brought in on a client gig or two […]

Learn More July 15, 2020

Want Your Ad to Go Viral?

Go catch lightning a bottle. Maybe not. Maybe it isn’t random. But what it certainly isn’t is “brilliant” or “emotional” ads. The characteristics of the ad do matter but there is a lot of interplay with characteristics of the viewers. In short, part ad, part people. And, one can argue, as we will, that the […]

Learn More July 13, 2020

To Nudge or Nudge?

Every single test should have both theory and evidence as its basis. You could test a brown kraft envelope vs the plain white control, and then find some theory of human behavior that justifies this test. But, if you start with the theory, you may discover a better test idea. Why do people give? Social […]

Learn More July 10, 2020

Great Monthly Giving Is In The Details

In the midst of all our ranting, pontificating and advice-giving it’s easy to overlook the fundamental importance of paying attention to details. “So mundane” …” So below my pay grade” …” So what?” Everyone reading this knows down deep that indeed details do matter. And, if we’re going to succeed we have to make the […]

Learn More July 8, 2020

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