Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Do You Vote? Or Are You A Voter?

I voted last Friday. This is, as I’ve said before, a case of identity: I [voted] knowing in my brain of brains (as opposed to my heart of hearts) that it made no possible difference. Everyone I voted for will win or lose by a healthy margin. And even if my one vote could be […]

Learn More October 25, 2018

4 Behavioral Science Tips for #GivingTuesday

Are you ready for #GivingTuesday? Having recently reviewed a bunch of #GivingTuesday emails from different charities I’m sure as a sector we can do better. As a behavioral scientist, three observations stood out. The majority of nonprofits are using a match offer for #GivingTuesday. I won’t argue against such an offer here. We’ve covered […]

Learn More October 23, 2018

Mid-Term Palette Cleanser

The mid-term elections in the U.S. can’t come—and go– soon enough as far as I’m concerned. I’m sick and tired of the incessant parade of tv spots warning that unless I vote Republican the liberal mob, reinforced by a caravan of dangerous immigrants somewhere south of the Border will destroy jobs and turn us all […]

Learn More October 22, 2018

Institutionalizing Myopia

Amazon recently scrapped a machine-learning based recruiting tool. Its sin? It was discriminating against women. Why would a machine pick up this very human bias? The machine learned by looking at resumes submitted to Amazon over the previous decade. Since the tech sector skews male, especially for technical roles (see chart from Reuters at right), […]

Learn More October 19, 2018

7 Easy Retention Wins

My local mechanic has a sign over his workbench: “I can explain it to you, but I can’t make you understand it.” Visions of that sign popped up as I worked on The Top Five Barriers to Retention post. That’s when it occurred to me that there are many well-intentioned folks who really don’t have the […]

Learn More October 17, 2018

Top Five Barriers to Retention

We fundraisers love lists. Most are of the “Top Five Steps to Success” variety. Frankly, I’ve always been more intrigued with the “Top Five Steps NOT to Take”. Just as someone who’s just learning to ride a bike wouldn’t attempt to mount it wearing a 40-pound backpack or peddle with flat tires, there are several […]

Learn More October 15, 2018