Award Winning Blog - Agitator

After 2000 Years, Your Chance to Make Matching Gift History

Today we’re serving a helping of Roman history paired with the an elixir to lift your pandemic depressed spirits by helping an association of fundraisers in New Zealand that’s in dire straits. Over the years we’ve offered up dozens of posts on Matching Gifts – the do’s, don’ts and effective alternatives. But, horror of horrors, […]

Learn More August 12, 2020

How Do We Get the Damn Envelope Opened?

It is as true as it is unhelpful to note that the outer envelope (OE) must be opened before someone can pay attention to the insides and send back the reply form or not (almost always, not…). There is certainly a lot of envelope testing done, no disputing that. But, is there any theory guiding […]

Learn More August 10, 2020

In Their Own Words: Satisfaction and Frustration in the Donor Experience

When donors have their psychological needs satisfied, they’re more likely to give and keep giving because they’ll really want to. We previously talked about donors’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. As a quick refresher: autonomy refers to feelings of choice and volition; competence to feelings of making a positive difference, and relatedness […]

Learn More August 7, 2020

Death of the US Postal Service Exaggerated

Thought we’d bring some of the old band back for this timely topic—the state of the US Postal Service and the deliverability of direct mail. In simpler times—say 2019— the U.S. Postal Service was not a political football. But as with so many of 2020’s “features,” that’s where we are. Thankfully, much of the harshest […]

Learn More August 5, 2020

The “Intention to Give” Giving Gap

There is an entire field of study, decades old, focused on the relationship between intention to do something and doing it – intended behavior vs. actual behavior. This is far more involved and practical than the too simplistic and quite misleading adage that ‘people don’t do what they say’. In fact, the intention to do […]

Learn More August 3, 2020

Let Freedom Ring

The splendid and vile sides of America’s polarized politics were both on full display yesterday. As moving tributes to U.S. Representative John R. Lewis, the civil rights icon most closely associated with voting rights, were delivered at his funeral in Atlanta, Donald Trump issued a contemptible and foreboding Tweet suggesting the U.S. “Delay the Election […]

Learn More July 31, 2020