Award Winning Blog - Agitator

The Reality Distortion Field: Imagination

Pollster Frank Luntz calls “imagine” the most powerful word in the English language. He says “imagine allows you to communicate in the eyes and the vision of the listener rather than yours.” Good verbs like “imagine,” “remember,” and “picture in your mind” give a person the trigger to help them put themselves in the place […]

Learn More July 24, 2018

May the Fundraising Force Be With You

Among the many skills attributed to Steve Jobs was his ability to create a “reality distortion field”—a mental force he created to persuade himself and others to believe almost anything. Colleagues from early days note it was this skill that enabled Jobs and his team to develop the original Macintosh computer and deliver the software […]

Learn More July 23, 2018

How Donor Opinion Can Steer You Right

Yesterday’s post ccataloged a multitude of reasons surveys and donor listening could steer you wrong. That said, there are many things we must ask donors that are both easy to answer accurately and vital for us to know: How easy was the online donation process? How committed are you to the organization? Are you a […]

Learn More July 20, 2018

Your A/B test winner may be losing money

It was an A/B test winner. The Bavarian State Opera had a fundraising ask post-online-ticket purchase. They found if they forced ticket purchasers to state either “I have donated already” or “No, thank you” to bypass this ask, response rate went up one percentage point and average gift increased by $.46. Increased average gift and […]

Learn More July 19, 2018

Why Donor Opinions Could Steer You Wrong

It’s not their fault; it could be yours. On Monday, Roger talked about the multitude of sins committed in the Charity Commission report. Among them was the flawed approach of asking people why they thought what they thought. Today, I wanted to explain why it’s so difficult to get people’s opinions of their opinions. Tomorrow, […]

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Your Gift of 16 Minutes

Adrian Sargeant and his crew at the Philanthropy Centre need 16 minutes of your help. Here’s why. They’re undertaking a major study on how best to measure an organiztion’s “philanthropic orientation.” The end product will be a simple questionnaire that you and other organizations can put to work to determine what steps they need to take […]

Learn More July 18, 2018