Award-Winning Blog


A Little Hair of the Dog

You’ve heard me talking about knowing your donors’ identity or identities. One of the classic examples is cat people versus dog people: it’s simple, there are two options, and you can see how messaging would be different for each group. But it took a for-profit to give an interesting example of a next logical step […]

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Avoid the Cringe-Inducing Moment of Calling a Deceased Donor

Today we’re adding TrueDeceased  to The Agitator Toolbox. This easy-to-use tool enables you to go online and quickly—and without charge – get an overview of who on your database is deceased. When The Agitator first announced our Data Liberation Crusade and asked what low-cost data services were needed, reader Ann Kensek told us, “My Data Dream would include a database […]

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Peer-to-Peer Fundraisers: Don’t Run. Dash!

I mean it.  Dash right over to Amazon, click and order Dollar Dash: The Behavioral Economics of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising , a practical and powerful guide to the psychology behind P2P fundraising and the factors that drive donors and volunteers with plenty of case studies. In fact, even if you don’t give one whit about peer-to-peer […]

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Advocacy Fundraising #3: Finding and Converting Advocates

You’ve defined your Advocate Identity.  And you know the slacktivism traps.  But,  how do you acquire constituents who are advocates, then convert them to donors? There are services like Care2 and CQ Roll Call that will sell you advocates.  I’ve heard mixed results from these services, including one recently who said her online advocates finally […]

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How do donors choose among charities?

The latest Blackbaud report indicates that giving in the U.S. went up 4.1% in 2017.  (Yay!) But inflation was 2.1% and the number of nonprofits (in the last year for which I could find data) went up 3.1%.  Thus, 4.1% is a net loss in real terms.  (Boo!) It feels like that, doesn’t it?  Like […]

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Advocacy Fundraising #2: Slacktivism Science

Online advocacy has a bad name.  Specifically: slacktivism (or clicktivism).  Seth Meyers put the prevailing opinion into funny words on SNL: “Look, if you make a Facebook page we will “like” it—it’s the least we can do. But it’s also the most we can do.” This frames the debate well.  Is online activism  a prelude […]

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