Award Winning Blog - Agitator

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

Bumper Crop for #GivingTuesday. Crop. Picture of the Larger Harvest Mixed.

First, a quick summary of 2018 #GivingTuesday results (as of 11/29/18): Biggest #GivingTuesday ever raised $380 million in the U.S. 6 million donations were made with mean gift size of $105.55 Facebook users, some using livestream Facebook video gaming, raised over $125 million; that’s $45 million more than last year. Blackbaud reported that its systems […]

Learn More November 30, 2018

“FRANKLY WE DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY”

I don’t know exactly when it will happen. But, some day in the not too distant future your organization will receive a letter from a donor that goes something like this: Dear ABC Organization, I’m growing increasingly concerned over the widespread use and abuse of my private and personal information by organizations like Facebook, Google […]

Learn More November 28, 2018

How to Get People to Help You (and Donate)

In June, psychologist Dr. Heidi Grant came out with Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You. She reviews the literature to find out how to ask for help in the workplace so both we and the askee are better off. The funny part is most of the lessons she has for asking for help […]

Learn More November 26, 2018

50 Ways to Thank Your Donors

Tomorrow our U.S. readers will celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Next week many Agitators will find themselves in the midst of #GivingTuesday. However, truth be told, we all should be about the business of thanking our donors every day. So, with apologies to Paul Simon and his 1975 Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, here’s a lyrical […]

Learn More November 21, 2018

Distinguish Yourself on #GivingTuesday

If the number of “How To Get Ready for #Giving Tuesday” emails in my inbox is any barometer this year’s #GivingTuesday targets will be buried in a blizzard of breathless matching gift offers, convulsing countdown clocks and sundry demands that only an uncaring human, without soul or pulse, would refuse to hit the ‘donate’ button. […]

Learn More November 19, 2018