Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Lousy Boards, Lousy Bosses

Yesterday’s email yielded a field report from the circuit-riding Tom Ahern summarizing the dangers of lousy bosses and boards. . He had just previewed a new training session— Everyone’s a Critic– with an audience drawn from a few universities, the Girl Scouts, some hospital, social services, arts/museums and a hospice. Tom reports that “after two hours the group […]

Learn More May 11, 2018

Monthly Giving Part 4: Stewarding Monthly Donors

For reasons attributable only to sloth or ignorance far too many organizations sign up monthly donors then walk away. No thank you. No phone call. No newsletter. Nothing. And they wonder why these precious donors lapse. Really? In a moment I’ll share the top three tips on stewarding (treating donors like human beings) monthly donors […]

Learn More May 10, 2018

Dining With Donors

It had been years since I visited an all-night diner. So, the other night, road weary and longing for a cheeseburger and fries, I pulled into a real live, old-fashioned, aluminum clad diner and made my way to a booth with its own jukebox. Heaven. BUT… something was amiss. Out of place. Unfamiliar. With my […]

Learn More May 9, 2018

“Sorry, We’re Too Busy to Improve”

“No one is working 10-12 hours a day. Being busy is not working. Taking calls and meetings is a waste. Whenever someone tells me they’re actually working 12-14 hours a day [I ask] are you working or is your time filled with tiny blocks of bullshit ore are there large blocks of uninterrupted time?” That […]

Learn More May 8, 2018

A potpourri of updates

Here at The Agitator, we pride ourselves on well-reasoned, thoughtful posts that explore important themes in depth often over a week. This isn’t going to be one of those weeks. This is going to be a week of potpourri, using the popular Jeopardy definition of “doesn’t fit into any other category.” So we’ll start with […]

Learn More May 7, 2018

Agitator Cliff Notes: What’s Next?

I wanted to find another book to talk about today. But the problem wasn’t finding a book; it was narrowing it down to just one. So let’s hear your votes in the Comments on two things: Is this Agitator Cliff Notes approach worthwhile and worth doing again? What book(s) do you recommend? Roger has sent […]

Learn More May 5, 2018