Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Ambushing And Intercepting

Fundraisers … let’s not overate ourselves and our powers of persuasion. Maybe — just maybe — fundraisers do convince donors occasionally to make second and subsequent and larger gifts using well-formulated arguments, reasons and cases. But as Tom Ahern nicely observes in his recent e-newsletter, we shouldn’t kid ourselves about that first gift … “Each donor […]

Learn More July 6, 2017

Fundraising Worries From The Coalface

One of my friendly news feeds from Google was kind enough to forward me this guest opinion piece from the Medford (Oregon, USA) Mail Tribune, titled Nonprofits face tumultuous times. The piece was written by Brad Russell, CEO of the local YMCA there, and a board member of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon. Brad seems like a […]

Learn More July 5, 2017

The Secret To Happiness In A World Gone Nuts

The long Fourth of July weekend is getting underway here in the U.S. as Americans head for beaches, barbeques, parades and fireworks to celebrate Independence Day. Agitator readers North of the border will mark Canada Day tomorrow and in two weeks our French readers will celebrate Bastille Day. Regardless of where we live it seems […]

Learn More June 30, 2017

Fundraising Metrics That Matter

Yesterday I explored ‘vanity metrics’ and briefly explained why they’re not very helpful for serious decision-making. Or how, in the case of Benchmarking, they’re often ignored or mis-applied. Today, we’ll move to metrics that truly matter. By my definition an important metric – a metric that matters – is one that triggers the “What-should-I-do-differently-to-improve?” question. […]

Learn More June 29, 2017

What happens after the Trump Bump?

We’d all heard the rumblings: since November, some nonprofits have been raking in donations. The weirdness then got a name: the Trump Bump. Sorry, Vitruvius, I wasn’t willing to take it on faith and on rhyming that this was real. But it turns out to be real. A new report highlights that intent to give […]

Learn More June 28, 2017

Beware of Vanity Metrics

In Is Your Website Driving Away Your Best Folks? I warned of the danger relying on ‘vanity metrics’ like ‘page views’ or ‘time on site’. In fact, the use of ‘vanity metrics’ is problematic in our trade far beyond the online world. So, I thought it would be helpful to cover the ‘metrics’ topic in more […]

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