Award Winning Blog - Agitator

What Is Important to Your Donors? How Do You Know?- Part 3 of 3 on Donor Surveys

Consider this hypothetical but quite illustrative example of what many organizations (and the vendors conducting the work) might do to measure importance. Survey Question: Non-Profit X engages in the following activities. Please rate each based on their importance to you, with “0” being not at all important and “10” being extremely important. Providing clean water […]

Learn More February 7, 2020

Survey Question Design 101- Part 2 of 3 on Donor Surveys

A caveat upfront: Our view is that survey research, especially questionnaire design and analysis is not art but science. This means it is not a subjective interpretation of what is and is not good design and analysis. There are rules from the social sciences and the statistical sciences. Violations are sometimes subtle, sometimes egregious. The […]

Learn More February 5, 2020

Facts and Myths of Donor Surveys- Part 1 of 3 on Donor Surveys

“The only research you can trust is actual response to real fundraising. Surveys can reveal interesting and useful information. But they are no good at uncovering donors’ real motivations. The only way to know that is watching what they do.” That quote comes from a well-known blogger in the fundraising space. What it lacks in accuracy […]

Learn More February 3, 2020

Mango Chutney With a Hint of Burnt Hair. C’mon, Try It!

This 30 second spot inspired today’s post. CLICK HERE It reminded me of a question an Agitator reader emailed me some years back asking: “Why do you think most fundraisers are so resistant to innovation and change?” A good question. An important question. I attempted to answer that question three years ago when I first received it. […]

Learn More January 31, 2020

Has Gregorian Sabotaged Your Supporter Journey?

Yes, Gregorian, as in the 12-month calendar most of civilization has been using since 1582. (Though, it turns out Great Britain and its Empire didn’t convert from the Julian calendar until 1752 by which time they needed to correct for 11 days of discrepancy and so Wednesday, September 2nd, 1752 was followed by Thursday, September […]

Learn More January 29, 2020

Digital Fundraising: 2019 Year End Results and Insights

It’ll be a few more weeks until the definitive, multi-channel results on 2019 End of Year Giving (EYOG) for the sector are published by the Blackbaud Institute and The Fundraising Effectiveness Project. However, digital fundraisers take note. Late last week in a post (“Everything you wanted to know about 2019 EOY fundraising but were afraid […]

Learn More January 27, 2020