Award Winning Blog - Agitator

2 Years After Dobbs: The Landscape of Support for Both Sides

In 1973 Craver, Mathews, Smith & Co. launched the first direct response campaign for the National Rights Action League (NARL,) now named Reproductive Freedom for All . That was the year Roe v. Wade was decided. That was also the time 51 years ago when women could not […]

Learn More June 17, 2024

Grade Level Belongs In School, Not Copywriting

Writing should reject all amplifications, digressions, and swellings of style: to return back to the primitive purity, and shortness, when men delivered so many things, almost in an equal number of words . . .a close, naked, natural way of speaking; positive expressions; clear senses; a native easiness: bringing all things as near the plainness, […]

Learn More June 14, 2024

Definitely Bold and Underline…or Not

It seems an article of faith that adding bold or underline in direct mail is best practice. Google it and some version of these points will surface many times over in the first few search result links. Bolding or underlining signals that a sentence is important. But underlining also serves a second, more important purpose. The […]

Learn More June 12, 2024

Transaction Costs Are A Killer

Not your transaction costs, the donor’s. Why does a mailing to a well curated list of folks garner such a low response rate? It’s only one of two reasons, A bunch of people on the mail list shouldn’t be – i.e. the list sucks reason The cost in time, convenience to give your mailing attention […]

Learn More June 10, 2024

The Evolution of Ken Burnett’s Vision

In the soft dawn of the early 1990s, Ken Burnett sat at a modest desk in the UK, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts about the future of fundraising. He was a man possessed by a vision. The vision would ultimately culminate in the first edition of Relationship Fundraising: A Donor-Based Approach to the Business […]

Learn More June 7, 2024

2,000 Birds or a Flock?

Humans often find it hard to appreciate the size of the problem and therefore, are often unwilling to donate more if there are 2,000 birds or humans vs. only 20. And we’re all familiar by now with the identifiable victim effect that can spike giving when sharing the story of a single person or bird, […]

Learn More June 5, 2024