Award Winning Blog - Agitator

First, Do No Harm

A warning to those who have had a stillborn child – you may want to skip down to the bolded line below. Gillian Brockell had a tweet on Tuesday about grief and algorithms worth a read: An open letter to @Facebook, @Twitter, @Instagram and @Experian regarding algorithms and my son’s birth: pic.twitter.com/o8SuLMuLNv — Gillian Brockell […]

Learn More December 14, 2018

5 Tips to Kill Stupid Ideas and Still Keep Your Job

Among the hackneyed phrases I most detest: “There are no bad ideas.” Sometimes the phrase is offered up at the start of “brainstorming” sessions, to encourage the shy. Sometimes it’s delivered to invisible eye-rolls and silent sighs by the chair of the board or a big donor. Civility and silence at any price. But, the […]

Learn More December 12, 2018

Better to Be At the Table Than On the Menu

The likelihood of increased privacy and data regulation of nonprofits in the U.S. is not a question of “whether”, but “when” and “how onerous.” The gathering storm over real and imagined abuses by Facebook, Google and other big tech platforms will unleash a downpours of concern, finger-pointing and political grandstanding in the new Congress that […]

Learn More December 10, 2018

Give to Get: Case Studies

So we’ve talked a good game about Give-to-Get this week. Monday, Nick noted the trend that asking people who donate to other organizations to care about yours is declining and the opportunity is to ask people who care to donate. Wednesday, Kevin outlined how you can create a content-based reason to join, donate, and retain. […]

Learn More December 7, 2018

Give to Get: Creating Value Exchanges for Your Donor Identities

Avid Agitator readers know that donor identity is the core reason donors give to organizations. There are a thousand ways to save lives and change lives, so donors tend to support charities that mean something to them personally. And they will keep that preference even if the preferred cause is less efficient. But did you […]

Learn More December 5, 2018

Give to Get: The Need for a New Acquisition Model

Mail list rental and exchange is diminishing in effectiveness. How can we tell? There’s the anecdotal: the number of people requesting no rental or exchange in feedback surveys is rising. And many charities are seeing their acquisition results wane. There’s the studied: researchers looked at people who get more charitable mail solicitations in a study […]

Learn More December 3, 2018