Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Is Your Fundraising All Dots, No Pattern?

We report average gift as gospel. And if the giving by your donors looks like the normal, bell curve on the left then average and how tall or wide the middle part is will give you much of what you need. This world view assumes outliers are distraction. How many times have you or your […]

Learn More September 13, 2024

Jiu-Jitsu Fundraising

An enemy is crystallizing. It’s motivating. “Rally the mostly satisfied, even-keeled moderates to storm the bastille.”, said nobody ever. Does your organization have an enemy? The rich, the establishment, the pro-this or con-that, the anti-whatever you stand for? Or maybe there’s just a big, prevailing message that has lots of air time, exposure or […]

Learn More September 11, 2024

Beware of Junk Science

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the most popular personality test in the world. Fortune 100 love it. Government agencies love it. More than 1.5 million people take it every year. Our only issue with it as social scientists is this: It’s garbage. Otherwise, the behavioral scientists at DonorVoice love it. It fails two fundamental requirements. […]

Learn More September 9, 2024

What’s cul-de-sac fundraising look like?

The echo chamber is getting louder, we tune out damn near everything not matching what we already believe and we’re much more likely to distrust people who aren’t like us. Partisan agreement between spouses was 60% in the mid 60’s, it’s now closer to 85%. Pew research shows partisans have few friends from the opposing […]

Learn More September 6, 2024

Breaking Free of the Past

The summer of 2024 ended on Labor Day, but it was neither lazy nor hazy. It was busy—busy for advocacy and political fundraisers and for the media, both struggling in the churn of American politics. Watching the current state of American politics, especially the Presidential campaigns, we see how much has changed in politics and […]

Learn More September 4, 2024

No Heavy Lifting

We’re taking the day off in deference to our U.S. readers coping with the official end of summer after a long Labor Day weekend. Enjoy … and welcome back to the grind! Kevin and Roger

Learn More September 2, 2024