Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Learning from Politics: Texting

In the last US election year, we talked about what we can learn from political campaigns in hypertargeting, nudge language, and building the tools you need. Now, we have a lesson we can take from the 2018 cycle about the use of texting. A bit of background – for political campaigns, robocalls are the incumbent […]

Learn More January 8, 2020

The Year In Review – Part 2

Here are three additional concerns/opportunities that we raised in 2019 –topics that also happened to be among the most popular with Agitator readers. If acted upon, each one holds substantial promise for a brighter 2020 provided they’re acted upon. Donor Identity. It won’t surprise frequent Agitator readers that in a study by Donor Graphics for One & […]

Learn More January 6, 2020

We Pause The Year In Review for This Serious Rant

I was moving along to finish Part 2 of my Year in Review post when a Tweet storm caught my eye. Usually, I ignore ‘em while writing, but this series struck a nerve. In fact, it reveals how we so ignore and frustrate basic donor needs that I wonder how we even survive. Consequently, I’m […]

Learn More January 3, 2020

The Year in Review: Part 1

Happy New Year! This is the perfect time to invoke the spirit of Janus, the Roman god who looked both forward and backward. Looking at the state of fundraising back in 2019 and forward into 2020 I think three things ae true at the same time. Fundraising is much worse. Fundraising is terrible. Fundraising will […]

Learn More January 1, 2020

Fundraisers Abandon Ship

This post first appeared on August 19, 2019 Not only is the nonprofit sector doing a lousy job holding on to donors, we’re apparently equally awful when it comes to retaining nonprofit fundraisers. In a recent survey conducted by The Harris Poll for The Chronicle of Philanthropyand AFP, using a self-selected sample of American and […]

Learn More December 30, 2019

REPEAT: Thanks, But No Thanks-Part 2

Thanks to everyone involved in the robust discussion here and on social media about the study of thank you calling on subsequent giving Kiki and Roger discussed Monday. In particular, discussion from Penelope Burk and other minds in fundraising have centered on who calls, when they call, and what is said. I’ll have a brief […]

Learn More December 28, 2019