Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Donor Acquistion: Time for New Approaches

We’ve devoted significant space ( here, here, here and here) emphasizing the importance of tending your Garden of Existing Donors to assure higher retention at a time when, overall, the sector is hemorrhaging donors. BUT…as noted on Monday, even if we can arrest the momentum of the descent in numbers of donors, these actions alone will […]

Learn More March 22, 2019

Toward Donor Sustainability

You awake and grab your rod and reel. You will eat what fish you catch; if you do not catch you do not eat. The fish awake. They have two schools of thought*. You have the Dory school with poor memories. They think the western part of the water is a great place to get […]

Learn More March 20, 2019

Three Scenarios for The Future of Individual Giving

Last week, we did some wringing of hands, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments about the loss of the average individual donor. But how wringy, gnashy, and rendy should we be? What does our future hold? So we did what any smart person would do when working with Fundraising Effectiveness Project data: fired up […]

Learn More March 18, 2019

Take Action Before The Trump Bump Slumps

As we head into board meeting season and the discussion around preliminary budgeting for 2020 many advocacy organization leaders will be touting the magnificent rise in both income and numbers of donors over the past two years. What frightens me is that some may believe this bonanza will last. It won’t. If experience holds, many […]

Learn More March 15, 2019

Fund for the Widow of the Unknown Soldier

While preparing a follow-up post to Nick’s Two Identity Tests You Can Run I was reminded that not only is “donor identity”—the core reason for a person’s giving– powerful, but that it can also be powerfully misused. Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to money raising for unethical or scam charities and scam […]

Learn More March 13, 2019

Two Donor Identity Tests You Can Run

We’ve talked in some detail about how donor identity – the person’s core reason for giving to you – is the best way to segment your file. But talk is cheap. Let’s see some results. Can going deeper into donor identity improve results? And can looking at new and different reasons to give bring new […]

Learn More March 11, 2019