Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Stuck On the Bottom Line

Why, for nearly six decades, has American philanthropy failed to grow beyond a 2% share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? After all, decade after decade athletes break new records, horses run faster, crop yields bloom with increases and on and on. But since 1970 American philanthropic giving has stayed stuck; the percentage of GDP […]

Learn More April 9, 2018

Segmenting Your Donor Services

Every donor is worthy of respect. After all, not everyone gives of themselves to help others. Every dollar given is a sacrifice. Even if given with not-wholly-pure motives like tax benefits or looking good to others, a dollar to charity is a dollar not spent on the hedonic or the temporary. And yet, for charities, […]

Learn More April 6, 2018

Mayfly marketing

Mayflies wait an entire year waiting to be born. On the day of their birth, they fly off, find a mate, lay eggs, and die. All in one day. This feels like the modern marketing landscape. Our windows of relevance in the media and of opportunity with donors seem so fleeting. I have bad news: […]

Learn More April 5, 2018

(Lack of) Speed Kills

When Amazon started, people were nervous about providing a credit card number in hope that their books would arrive. (Don’t @ me, 25-and-unders, this was a real thing.) Will my book arrive? Will it be what I intended? Is this whole Internet thing a scam? So a large part of Amazon’s infrastructure works to convince […]

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The Neuroscience of Donor Services

Why do we care about donor service? Let’s delve into our donors’ brains to find out. You! Put down that hacksaw! I was speaking metaphorically! Picture any decision you make as a debate between “pull towards” and “push away.” The pull comes from our nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens – think of this as your […]

Learn More April 4, 2018

The Value of “Random Amazement”

This week Nick and I deal with the critically important function of “Donor Service.” Let’s start with this fundamental question: Do you really know what good donor service looks like? I sure hope so, because as we’ve reported before, nearly 20% of all donors who drop out quit because of lousy donor service. Consequently, any […]

Learn More April 3, 2018