Award Winning Blog - Agitator

When Progress Isn’t Enough: The Risk of Public Goals in Fundraising

One of the greatest movies of all time for those of us who enjoy parody, slapstick and juvenile humor is Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights. He spends most of his life against an impossible standard of “if you ain’t first you’re last”, a motto from his father who was high on peyote at the time he […]

Learn More March 28, 2025

Fundraising’s 3-Minute Track Problem

There’s a popular belief that modern songs are shorter because people—especially young people—have shorter attention spans. Makes sense, right? TikTok. Streaming. Clicks. Scrolls. No patience. Turns out… wrong. A recent data dive from Stat Significant analyzed 150 million song streams and listener behavior. What they found is more interesting—and far more relevant to fundraising than […]

Learn More March 26, 2025

Cracking the Code: How to Make Sure Donors See Themselves in Your Appeals

Most fundraising messages follow the same pattern: brand on one side, programs on the other, and hope in between. We call this bookend fundraising, heavily focused on who we are as an organization and what we do, while leaving the rest of the bookshelf, where the donor’s personal story should be, empty. The rub? The […]

Learn More March 24, 2025

Robbing the Sick to Pay the Suits. Donors Defect.

While we’ve been mainly focused on the need for citizens and nonprofits to fight back as Trump, Musk, and their lapdogs go hell for leather to destroy the U.S. government while padding their own pockets, we must also cast our gaze downward, to the tawdry spectacle of Congress. There, the Republican majority, a trembling congregation […]

Learn More March 21, 2025

More Exposure, More Money…Until It Backfires Like a Bad Tinder Streak

A mysterious student at Oregon State University attended class for two months completely enveloped in a large, black bag. Only his bare feet were visible. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 a.m., the Black Bag sat on a small table at the back of a Speech 113 – Basic Persuasion class. The professor knew […]

Learn More March 19, 2025

Weaponized Giving

The prevailing wisdom in fundraising circles is giving is fueled by altruism, a desire to help. But recent research on retributive philanthropy—donating to punish a perceived wrongdoer—turns this assumption on its head. Donors are motivated not just by love but also by anger, moral outrage, and a thirst for justice. Retribution donations spike when donors […]

Learn More March 17, 2025