Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Farewell To A Progressive Fundraising Hero

Bill Dodd, a direct response pioneer who helped build some of the great names in progressive advocacy and mentored a generation of fundraisers, died on July 17th. He was 68. Bill will be remembered in our trade for the causes he embraced with his skill, talent and big heart to help them grow. The magazine […]

Learn More August 7, 2017

Are You Making A Difference?

For many people, the value they find in what they do (after the pay raise and reputation gain) is whether they are actually making a difference. Are they improving something — their product, service, work culture, community, the world? It seems like there are two points on the calendar when we tend to reassess such […]

Learn More August 4, 2017

Think AND Simplify?

In another incarnation, I spend a lot of time trying to get farmers to adopt ‘best practises’ that would improve their productivity and profitability while at the same time lessening their environmental footprint. What one sees is that there are basically three groups of farmers and growers out there: The top 20% ‘super farmers’ who […]

Learn More August 3, 2017

Fundraising In Alice’s Restaurant

OK Kids — especially the young (under 50) and those blessedly old — I’m gonna take you on a trip down Memory Lane in hopes of dealing with Tom’s question Who’s a Poor Fundraiser to Believe? If you have the usual internet-gnat attention span, please move on now. This is gonna take a few minutes. […]

Learn More August 2, 2017

Who’s A Poor Fundraiser To Believe?

Who could resist reading a blog post with this title — The most deadly error in fundraising — from esteemed fundraising creative Jeff Brooks?! I jumped right on it. Jeff’s most deadly error: “Assuming your donors don’t like to hear from you — and that too much contact (whatever that means) will drive away donors, […]

Learn More August 1, 2017

Eminence vs Evidence In Fundraising – Part 3: ‘How’ And ‘Where’?

I noted in Part 1 of this series that “our trade won’t transform from its current eminence-based state to one more evidence-based overnight. In fact, the path to empiricism and scientific proof will be long and rocky. And plenty of disagreement, tension, name-calling, or worse will mark the journey.” Beyond the usual battles involving egos there […]

Learn More July 31, 2017