Award Winning Blog - Agitator

What Fundraising Skills Are You Lacking?

I just sent a short article to my daughter, a newbie working at Saatchi & Saatchi. She has a very good intuitive sense of how to go about sizing up the ‘market’ for various brands, products and services, but I’ve gently urged her to match her instincts with a deeper capacity for analytics. So this article […]

Learn More January 12, 2017

The FACTS About Matching Gifts

In a year-end post, Please Don’t Eat the Poinsettia, I noted that the field of fundraising is filled with lots of myths, aphorisms and the equivalent of ‘old wives tales’. Some are true, some are not, and many persist for which there’s little proof one way or the other. I promised that in 2017 we’d explore some […]

Learn More January 11, 2017

Make Me Smile, Not Smirk

Given that I’m hiding out in New Zealand, I probably received far fewer email fundraising appeals than most Agitator readers during the end-of-the-year bombardment. [In fact, my concealment is working, I can’t recall but one NZ-based charity ‘discovering’ me as an online target (compared to three mail appeals).] Most of what I did receive turned me […]

Learn More January 10, 2017

A Bountiful Reward For Giving Thanks

In November The Agitator reported on a creative alternative to #GivingTuesday called #ThanksGivingTuesday. Organized by Heather McGinness, VP of Advancement at Concordia College-New York, this all-stakeholder event is testament to the power of genuine gratitude, skillful communication, and a mighty respect for donors. I checked back with Heather last week to find out how the bottom […]

Learn More January 9, 2017

The Year For Acquisition

I’m writing this post with great trepidation. Because I want to float the idea that 2017 should be a year for unprecedented donor acquisition. But as Agitator readers well know, deep down Roger and I continue to believe that too many fundraisers and organizations inexplicably, indefensibly neglect donor retention. Consequently, it almost pains me to write a […]

Learn More January 6, 2017

Say you want a resolution…

Whither the New Year’s resolution? You know, the things you set at the beginning of the year like: I will run five miles a day I will not eat (many) donuts in the break room I will stop starting blog posts with “Whither” to avoid sounding like I write while wearing a powdered wig and […]

Learn More January 5, 2017