Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Storytelling Vs. Data. Which Is More Important?

Looking for something to debate over lunch today? Check out Nick Ellinger’s post over at the DonorVoice Blog, where he tackles the age-old debate over the power of storytelling versus data when it comes to fundraising success. Challenging a common thesis that that Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election because they focused on data-driven marketing, […]

Learn More February 17, 2017

Data-driven fundraising and storytelling: the genius of the and

Two random things before we start: We’ll be at the DMA Nonprofit Foundation meeting next week and we’d love to meet with you. Feel free to drop us a line if you would like to meet. Also, DonorVoice folks will be participating two sessions: one about how to use behavioral science in your program and […]

Learn More February 16, 2017

Donor Retention … Why Is It So Hard?

Roger’s written a 171-page $24.95 book on it — Retention Fundraising: The New Art and Science of Keeping Your Donors for Life. And yesterday he enthusiastically recommended Jay Love’s 170-page $5.67 Kindle book on it — Stay Together: How to Encourage a Lifetime of Donor Loyalty. [Even Jay would agree that the one extra — […]

Learn More

The Best $5 You’ll Ever Spend. Guaranteed.

“I’m disgusted and frustrated. You should be, too.” With those words, Michael Rosen launched his post What are the Obstacles to Improving Donor-Retention Rates? “Once again, the already horrible existing-donor and new-donor retention rates in the USA have further declined, according to the 2016 Donor Retention Report issued recently as part of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and Urban […]

Learn More February 15, 2017

10 Most Innovative Nonprofits

In its March issue, Fast Company names the 50 “World’s Most Innovative Companies”. The list was topped by Amazon, Google and Uber … not many surprises in their Top 10, although I humbly confess — Luddite that I am — that I did not recognise #8 Twilio, and once past the Top 10, my recognition […]

Learn More February 14, 2017

When All Else Fails: Merge

The general inability of large organizations to face change and flexibly deal with it hit home with this recent headline in Toronto’s Globe and Mail: Donation drop forces merger of Canada’s largest cancer charities, The merger of the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) was triggered by revenue decline of 16% […]

Learn More February 13, 2017