Award Winning Blog - Agitator

The Same Old Santa

In my 50 years of writing fundraising copy I’ve yet to hear of a donor saying, “Hey, that’s the same appeal you sent me last year!” Yet too many fundraisers worry (often out loud and in endless meetings) and drive copywriters nuts with screwball briefings like “we need something new and different for this year-end […]

Learn More December 15, 2017

Metrics for the global maximum

It’s tempting to say that every improvement is a win. You got an extra three percent on response rate or average gift nudged up. And it is to a significant extent. But the question you must ask is what is the goal toward which you are optimizing. To re-use an analogy, let’s say you wanted […]

Learn More December 14, 2017

Killing the One-Size-Fits-All Onboard

Consider these donors to a disease organization: She’s a researcher working on your disease. You featured some of her research in your newsletter and she was reminded to give you a donation. She was diagnosed with the disease you are working to eradicate. She found tips on management and coping on your web site and […]

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What to Listen for in Donor Onboarding

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” ― Stephen R. Covey In the previous on boarding post I emphasized the imperative to listen as soon as possible. But that brings up the question: listen for what? There are several variables that, when learned from donors during the […]

Learn More December 13, 2017

Onboarding: The Fierce Urgency of Listening

The unofficial motto of Seinfeld, according to Larry David, was “No hugging, no learning.” In short, there would be no growth in relationships and characters. (For the young’un’s, Seinfeld was a 90s observational comedy show from that guy who talks to comedians in cars while drinking coffee, the titular Veep, and some other people.) Because we […]

Learn More December 12, 2017

The Most Important Step in Donor Acquisition

#Giving Tuesday 2017 is now in the rearview mirror. So, we’ll be using this week to explore the proper onboarding of new donors from that event and the overall importance of proper onboarding generally. First, a brief reprise of #GivingTuesday that you might want to bookmark in thinking about that event next year. In Thank […]

Learn More December 11, 2017