Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Behavioral Science & Fundraising: The Desire for Completion

From trading baseball cards, to filling a stamp album, to locating that final object for some set of collectibles, whether we realize it or not every one of us is driven by what behavioral scientists call the desire for ‘set completion’ or ‘task completion’. Ever since age 14, when I added the 5th — and final […]

Learn More April 19, 2017

Who Loves You The Most?

I mean, apart from me and Roger? Seriously, looking at your nonprofit’s donor base, from highest gifts at the top to ‘average’ donors at the base of the pyramid, which donors have shown you the most love. And to be clear, I’m suggesting here the best measure of ‘donor love’ is donor continuity … retention. […]

Learn More April 18, 2017

Simple Isn’t Easy

In my post on the United Airlines customer care fiasco I promised a follow-up piece on just the opposite. A great example and resulting rules on building loyalty, retention and commitment. On the very day United was dragging Dr. Dao down the aisle, Rachel Hunnybunn, Director of Client Relationships for our sister company DonorVoice in the […]

Learn More April 17, 2017

Is Your Organization Behaving Like United Airlines?

United Airlines found itself at the center of a social media cyclone, media revolt and falling stock price this week, after a horrifying video that went viral. The scene: a doctor being forcibly removed from a coach class seat on one of its planes. According to published reports, the passenger was randomly selected to be bumped because […]

Learn More April 14, 2017

Bolding the fine print

It is a “best practice” to put certain things in fine print. Car dealerships run through their loan information at a speed that would make the Micro Machine man quail. Telemarketers run through the part where they are paid solicitors as briefly as the law will allow. And Apple’s 20,000-word opus iTunes Terms and Conditions […]

Learn More April 13, 2017

Partisan Purse Strings

Since the November presidential election, many Agitator readers, Tom and I have pondered the possible effects of President Trump’s victory on fundraising and activism. Here and here among several posts. Now we have some data from a CNBC Survey showing that U.S. consumerism has become so politically charged that Americans are showing their partisanship through […]

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