Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Save the Pie for Dessert

It’s July 2nd, which means 85% of your American colleagues are “working remotely,” which in practice means their laptops are open while they argue about who forgot to buy charcoal. So it feels like the perfect week to talk about something equally overused and underperforming: pie charts. You know, those colorful disks everyone loves to […]

Learn More July 2, 2025

Stop Dangling the Baby Seal. The Science Against Half-Told Stories

I came across a ‘best-practice’ guide for storytelling whose main recommendation is to write what they dub, Incomplete Stories. This is garbage advice. That’s my hot take. And if you look at the evidence, it’s not just hot, it’s accurate. The incomplete story isn’t a new idea, it’s a lightly sanitized version of the fly-laden […]

Learn More June 30, 2025

The Cigar Box Checkout: Why Your Donation Page May Be Killing Your Campaigns

Imagine this: You’re in a checkout line. It’s long, sure, but you’ve waited. You’re ready. You’ve got your items in hand, maybe a kid tugging your sleeve, maybe a dog in the car. And when you get to the front of the line, the clerk pulls out a cigar box. She counts change by hand. […]

Learn More June 27, 2025

Your Appeal Outline: Thoughtful Strategy or Random Spasm?

Did you actually plan the outline of your fundraising appeal—or just let it happen to you? We’ve been diagramming appeal structures lately, not to make art but to make a point. Take a look at these two outlines from actual appeals: Same audience and mission, different structure. Which of these seems to follow a more […]

Learn More June 25, 2025

Is Your Personalization = N/A?

Three spec sheets, we’ll let you guess which one is ours. The more relevant guess for fundraising, which of these is more likely to match the person reading it – yellow, green or purple? At least the “Personalization: N/A” —isn’t even trying to pretend. The “4CP INKJET” is adopting a fake it until you make approach […]

Learn More June 23, 2025

The Donor Newsletter Is Dead. Long Live The Donor Newsletter.

Tom Ahern’s newsletter just landed in my inbox again. I treat it like a gold-embossed invitation to the attic of good sense and bright ideas. Not dusty. Not precious. Just sharp, useful, and often—like this week—unexpectedly timely. [Subscribe Free here.] This issue, Tom tells the story of Remo, a Twin Cities artist who leans heavily […]

Learn More June 20, 2025