Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Facebook Giveth…

“Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” (“I fear the Greeks, even when they bear gifts”) — Virgil, Aeneid Facebook has announced that it is eliminating its five percent transaction fee on donations to nonprofits (personal fundraisers still have a 6.9% + $.30 fee in the US). In a NY Times piece, donors report it being simple […]

Learn More January 10, 2018

Google Giveth and Google Taketh Away

For those who weren’t reading search engine marketing news over the holidays, instead spending “quality time” with “family” and “friends,” there was an earthquake for nonprofits who use Google Grants. I must preface this with the fact that Google is the only major advertising platform I know of with a program like Google Grants. Facebook […]

Learn More January 9, 2018

Fundraising Beyond @RealDonaldTrump

I confess. I spend far too much time transfixed by happenings on social media than I should. Whether it’s the ravings of the unstable @realDonaldTrump, or Facebook’s all-too-slow striptease toward the truth about its role in providing fertile ground for Russian election trolls there’s a lot going on that I find fascinating. But here at […]

Learn More January 8, 2018

TESTING: Go Beyond Individual Communications

When you want to find out if your control package could be beaten, you test a different communication against it. So how do you test if your direct marketing program could be better? Clearly, you test a different program against it. For some this is a scary thought: it’s hard enough to deliver on one […]

Learn More January 5, 2018

Does it hurt to ask (for feedback)?

You can hardly move today without being asked for your feedback. Over a year ago, I charted a week of feedback and found every transaction asked me for feedback except for a parking lot, a local Chinese restaurant, and an airline that stranded me in a city for a night without paying for my hotel […]

Learn More January 4, 2018

TESTING: When A/B Tests Attack (your results)

In yesterday’s post we talked about when A/B tests show results, but all that’s really there is noise. Today, we’ll flip that on its head: sometimes an A/B test shows no result, but there’s an important finding just below the surface. An example of this is a great study by Karlan and Wood looking at whether […]

Learn More