Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Fundraise Til We Drop?

I just read an article worrying about fundraising prospects in the post-Boomer world. Worryingly, it cited the Blackbaud study estimating that Boomers and older adults account for 69% of giving in the U.S. … and of course with the sub-text: they’ll start dying. There’s plenty of stuff to read about that particular Armageddon, so I […]

Learn More November 16, 2016

Stop Driving Your Donors Away

Do you really know what good donor service looks like? I sure hope so, because as we’ve reported before, nearly 20% of all donors who drop out quit because of lousy donor service. Consequently, any organization serious about improving its retention rates had better be deadly serious about the quality of donor services it provides. […]

Learn More November 15, 2016

Show Up … Brain On!

After several days of reflection, including a perhaps alcohol-fueled weekend of deep angst (or maybe glee), you’ve had a chance to absorb the meaning of President-elect Donald Trump for your organization, its mission and its fundraising needs. Now it’s Monday. Time to grab yourself by the shoulders, slap cold water in your face, gulp a […]

Learn More November 14, 2016

7 Conversion-Killing Words

Most of the time you read advice about words that are good to use in fundraising … like ‘you’. But here’s a fascinating article on seven words to avoid on your website conversion pages. And guess what, ‘you’ — actually ‘your’ — is one of them! The other six … Submit (implies ‘yielding’, something […]

Learn More November 11, 2016

Seven things you can stop doing today in direct marketing

I wish I knew what they were. Don’t get me wrong: there are seven things you can stop doing today in your direct marketing program and it will have little to no impact. I just don’t know what they are yet. I was re-reading Power of Habit the other day and a case study jumped out […]

Learn More November 10, 2016

‘James Caan’ Talks Retention

In his youth, curly-haired Roger was often mistaken for James Caan, actor of The Godfather fame. You’ll recall that Sonny Corleone was a hothead. And nothing makes Roger hotter than fundraisers’ neglect of donor retention. In this cameo appearance with fundraiser Amy Eisenstein, Roger discusses the basics of retention, starting with, “Say Thank You”. And plugs a book […]

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