Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Eminence vs Evidence In Fundraising – Part 2: What is “Proper” Research

Judging from readers’ Comments to Part 1 of this series there’s a truly felt need and desire for collecting — and sharing — proper fundraising research and findings. Two questions arise. Just what is ‘proper’ research? And, ‘how’ can this information best be shared? What Is ‘Proper’ Research? The definition of what constitutes ‘proper’ research […]

Learn More July 27, 2017

Eminence vs. Evidence In Fundraising–Part 1: Emerging from the Dark Ages

Slowly, ever so slowly, fundraising is emerging from its Dark Ages of reliance on myth, tribal wisdom, and so-called ‘best practices’. For generations, fundraising ‘know how’ has been driven by anecdotes and passed-along rules of thumb largely free of any empirical or scientific validation. Examples of our trade’s reliance on received wisdom abound. “Mail more, […]

Learn More July 26, 2017

Vice Cream

My second video-inspired post of the week is triggered by an enthusiastic review of Vice Cream’s marketing campaign by Melissa Ward at Target Marketing, for her regular Friday “What were they thinking?’ feature. Of course, Melissa’s review itself is delivered by video. But wait, it’s really Vice Cream’s own video (barely 2 minutes) that I want you to watch and, […]

Learn More July 25, 2017

Communications Breakdown

It was a rainy weekend where I live, so I spent an inordinate amount of time browsing through YouTube videos. I used to read books. Now I watch videos on an iPad (in a room surrounded by bookshelves, for old-time sake). This background proffered to explain why two of my posts this week (at […]

Learn More July 24, 2017

A Higher Calling

The other day Tom posed the question, Are You a Fundraising Professional?, and answered it by concluding that “If you see your role as facilitating a positive donor experience, then yes, you are.” The morning Tom’s post ran I received news that Jay Love, the co-founder and CEO of Bloomerang, the donor management software firm, is […]

Learn More July 21, 2017

Less contact, more revenue? Some for-profits think so

The nonprofits who have made the decision to mail less frequently must think they are going nuts. Organizations like Union of Concerned Scientists, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and others have seen positive net results by communicating less frequently and with more focus on the donor. Yet I have heard three different people from three different […]

Learn More July 20, 2017