Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Which Fundraising Stat Impresses You Most?

In his Friday post, Roger asked: How many donors must we lose before we learn? The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that initial results from #GivingTuesday show terrific growth. As they put it, the initial “haul” of #GivingTuesday looks to be $168 million, up from the estimated $117 million last year. On the other hand, in an […]

Learn More December 5, 2016

Losing Donors In The Sea of Sameness

When will some fundraisers wake up to the fact that the tragedy of donor flight is largely self-inflicted. Other than the 16% of donors lost to death virtually every other reason for not giving — abandoning support of an organization — is influenced and controlled by the actions the organization itself takes. Perhaps nowhere are […]

Learn More December 2, 2016

Real Thanksgiving Stuffing

Last Thursday — that would be Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. — while American Agitators were busily stuffing their bellies with turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce (or ethnic alternatives), our overseas friends at 101 Fundraising were on the job, busily dishing out the real stuff. And it would be hugely unfortunate if our US […]

Learn More December 1, 2016

Giving Tuesday and the when versus why of giving

I like the idea of Giving Tuesday very much – there needs to be a day (actually, more than one) dedicated to giving. That’s why it frustrates me that we are killing it. And not killing it in the sense of “doing very well.”* “Killing it” in the sense of making it unable to survive. […]

Learn More November 30, 2016

#ThanksGivingTuesday

In the flood of #GivingTuesday emails washing over our in-boxes yesterday, one powerful message stood out. Marked #ThanksGivingTuesday the message came from Concordia College-New York. This elegantly simple message of gratitude represents everything that #GivingTuesday — the Big Box Store approach to fundraising — does not. The message was accompanied by the video below. […]

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All About Meeting Needs

Any decent salesperson knows (and practises) that successful selling involves meeting customers’ needs, not selling the product or service. Fundraising is no different. It’s about meeting the donor’s needs … not the organization’s. A recent e-newsletter from Tom Ahern, citing Mark Phillips at Bluefrog, flagged this most fundamental principle. No, even more important — Law […]

Learn More November 29, 2016