Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Are Bad Designers Killing Your Fundraising?

Most of my 56 years in the fundraising trade have been devoured as a copywriter. Thousands of appeals, millions of words –all aimed at countering right-wing zealots… saving whales, seas, trees and seals… freeing political prisoners, building houses, promoting or opposing politicians… and battling for human dignity. Consequently, as editor of The Agitator I’m fascinated […]

Learn More March 6, 2020

The Bigger World of Behavioral Science

In his Agitator debut our new expert on supporter motivation explains why the time has come for nonprofits to more fully access the psychological insights and tools available to them and maximize their fundraising potential. Traditionally, “motivation” has been seen as an attribute that varied only by amount: folks can be either more or less […]

Learn More March 4, 2020

Does Hand Size Predict Fundraising Success?

A belief, once firmly held, is hard to change, even when the evidence and data overwhelmingly refute that belief. Take male hand size. We all know it correlates with…lower fumble rate among NFL Quarterbacks (why, what were you thinking?) Every year at this time the NFL evaluates college players and their pro worthiness with something […]

Learn More March 2, 2020

Getting More From Digital: Donor Conversion

In an earlier post announcing release of the Blackbaud Institute’s of the 2019 Charitable Giving Report I noted that the growth in online giving was up +6.8% compared to just 1% growth for offline in 2019. Fearing this statistic might spur some readers (or more likely their board members or CEOs) to rush off and […]

Learn More February 28, 2020

5 Simple Words Will Make You A Better Fundraiser

Elon Musk, controversial engineer and entrepreneur, became the 20th richest person in the world thanks to a series of industry-disrupting products. Among them PayPal, Tesla Auto, , SpaceX rockets, Solar City, the nation’s 2nd largest provider of solar power, and SolarGlass a company aimed at installing glass solar roofs on the worlds’ houses. In reading […]

Learn More February 26, 2020

Just Released: Blackbaud Institute’s 2019 Charitable Giving Report

The Blackbaud Institute has just released The 2019 Charitable Giving Report . It is not only vastly improved over previous editions but sounds an optimistic note in the cacophony of fundraising prognostications that often sound more like a dirge than a paen to progress. This year’s Report includes giving data from 8,210 nonprofit organizations representing […]

Learn More February 24, 2020