Award Winning Blog - Agitator

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

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Who’s the fairest of them all? Ever wonder how your organization is doing compared to other nonprofits in your community? Or how are you doing compared to other groups in your sector? Until now, you could get the answer by calling around town, checking with colleagues. Or, if interested in national trends in your sector […]

Learn More November 28, 2016

What’s in your leaky bucket(s)?

Our friends over at Bloomerang have a good post up here that argues we shouldn’t put all our donors into one bucket, sending “the file” undifferentiated communications. Absolutely right on. They also list out 20 segments that, for starters, you can use to differentiate your file. Great! And it’s only a start. And there’s been […]

Learn More November 23, 2016