Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Honoring The Courage To Challenge And Change

I want to extend my sympathy to David Love and Jen Love, two of my favorite Agitator-reading fundraisers over the passing of Dr. Henry Barnett, Jen’s grandfather and David’s father-in-law. Normally, I would do this privately with a personal note and not a post. But, the life of Henry “Barney” Barnett stands as a positive example […]

Learn More November 1, 2016

Trick Or Treat?

It’s Halloween for most of our readers tonight. I guess clown costumes are out (for you U.S. readers). Tricks are out too, for fundraisers. Instead, take a moment as you start the week and treat yourself. Think about the most memorable donation you personally have ever made. What was it? Who received it? How were you […]

Learn More October 31, 2016

Best U.S. Political Ad Of 2016

Agitator readers in the U.S. have been inundated with political ads of all kinds. An estimated $4.4 billion in TV spending alone. Up from $3.8 billion in 2012. Enough is enough. “Too much”, as Grandma Craver used to say, “will make a dog sick.” Sadly, most fail the basic test of informing viewers on the […]

Learn More October 28, 2016

Running the numbers on retention for fun and profit

On Tuesday, our friends at the Agitator exposed the innumeracy of some when it comes to calculating retention and covered how to calculate it. That’s a good first step toward benchmarking your retention numbers. And I have to confess that I have seen such fuzzy retention math even in the hallowed halls of learned conferences. One […]

Learn More October 27, 2016

Your Brain On Email

Roger’s been touting neuroscience lately and the application of what we know about how the brain processes stuff to produce sounder marketing/fundraising. Here’s an example of ‘Neuromarketing 101’ I recently came across. I commend this useful compilation of effective email marketing approaches based on neuroscience principles, put together by Emma, a pretty slick email marketing firm […]

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The Curse of Testing Illiteracy

Spurred on by my post The Curse of Fundraising Innumeracy, reader Mikaela King over at the National Geographic Society decided to “dog pile” on with what she termed “another illiteracy” in our sector — testing illiteracy. Mikaela noted, “A lack of discipline in conducting accurate A/B split testing, truly ensuring randomized segments, making sure your test segments are large […]

Learn More October 26, 2016