Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Pairing metrics for fun and (non)profit

On Tuesday, I talked about how Simpson’s paradox means you shouldn’t use just overall retention as a metric. Rather, you want to pair it with subgroup metrics so someone doesn’t achieve their retention goals by cutting off acquisition. I’ll generalize from that. As Newton would have said if he were a direct marketer, each metric […]

Learn More June 22, 2018

Who are your disaster donors?

We often talk about donor identities that make someone more valuable or easier to acquire, whether it’s direct connection to a disease organization, medical professionals to organizations that help sick kids, those who receive services, or many others. But what about the donor identities that make someone less valuable? Yes, they exist. And they are […]

Learn More June 21, 2018

What About People Who Don’t Answer Donor Surveys?

When you are in the business of asking donors about themselves and customizing their donor journeys based on that, you almost always get the question: “But what about those folks who don’t answer the survey?” There are couple of answers to this. The first is: keep asking. If there’s a datum that you need to […]

Learn More

Are You a Modern or Medieval Fundraiser?

Donors are changing far faster today than most of the organizations they give to. Their expectations are rising at the very moment their trust and loyalty are declining. Unfortunately, far too many nonprofits fail to understand this reality. As a result they’re woefully unprepared to cope. Few organizations understand why their donors give… few bother […]

Learn More June 20, 2018

What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Retention Rate

You’ve just made a wise decision: you are investing more in both donor-focused retention efforts and new ways to bring in the right donors for your program. Surely, your file will grow and your retention rate will increase. But when you look at the stats a year later, your file has grown. But your retention […]

Learn More June 19, 2018

Listening to the Wrong Donors

Jeff Brooks recently posted his 5th Law of Fundraising, which is “The more effective the fundraising campaign, the more complaints it will generate.” If this dictum were the law of gravity, I would have floated away. Some of my most effective campaigns have come in with donor notes that complimented the communication – a rarity. […]

Learn More June 18, 2018