Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Level Two Feedback: Using Feedback to Fix Your Systems

The YMCA thought they knew what their members wanted. Then they asked their members. The results, from The Power of Habit: “[T]he accepted wisdom among YMCA executives was the people wanted fancy exercise equipment and sparkling, modern facilities. The YMCA had spent millions of dollars building weight rooms and yoga studios. When the surveys were […]

Learn More March 8, 2018

Level One Donor Feedback: Fixing Things for Individuals

The first level of feedback is asking people for their thoughts and fixing problems for them. No, simply having your phone number on your website, mail, and publications and waiting for people to call is not level one feedback. It may have been at one point, but no longer. In late 2016, I tracked every […]

Learn More March 7, 2018

Donor-Centric or Faux Donor-Centric? Check the Plumbing.

When it comes to donor-centricity/obsession/love/devotion/passion I fear many fundraisers talk a good game while ignoring the fundamental and routine practices that should exist in any organization that truly cares about its donors. Tom’s and my mentor John Gardner, in his book Excellence defined the issue perfectly: “An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an […]

Learn More March 6, 2018

Are You Donor-Obsessed or Merely Donor-Centric?

Customer experience guru Gerry McGovern warns that even if a company is indeed “customer-centric” that may not be enough these days. “To truly be successful, you need to nurture a customer obsession culture within your organization.”, he warns. The Agitator says, “Amen.” So, let’s kick ‘donor-centricity’ up a notch and focus on what makes for […]

Learn More March 5, 2018

The Value of an Email Address

Last week, we talked about advocacy as a way of building your file (and I was called out, correctly, for discounting the potential of paid advocate acquisition). So how much should you spend to get one email address? There’s new data from Steve MacLaughlin and Blackbaud (that you can get from his Data Driven Nonprofits […]

Learn More March 2, 2018

When metrics attack

If one acquisition mail package has a response rate of 1.1% and an average gift of $28, you’d pick that over another with a response rate of 1% and an average gift of $25, right? All other things being equal, of course you would. That’s the trap – all other things are seldom equal. Let’s […]

Learn More March 1, 2018