Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Herbicide For Donors

The gardening catalogs, those heralds of Spring, are piling up on my desk. I’m way behind in ordering. Part of the reason the delay is that for many organizations where I volunteer, it’s budget time. And paying attention and advising them on their budget priorities is far more important than ordering the latest hybrid tea […]

Learn More April 3, 2017

Increasing face-to-face donor retention

It’s no secret that face-to-face donor retention is extremely challenging. Your fundraisers aren’t meeting cultivated lists of people — they meeting random people on the street. (OK, not totally random — they are placed in areas to maximize their potential success and screen people based on what they look to be. But these are imperfect […]

Learn More March 31, 2017

If You Must Deal With The Boss And Board

I guess I just started out in a grumpy mood this week, on Monday implying that for most fundraisers, hanging on to their donors was too demanding, beyond their ability. Roger on Tuesday tried to find some good news in a Bloomerang study indicating that somewhat more nonprofits were monitoring their retention rates these days, an ‘accomplishment’ […]

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Back To Basics: Lifetime Value (LTV)

Tom’s rant, A Man of Infinite Patience in a World of Imposters, triggered helpful comments from fellow Agitators on what can be done to help organizations better focus on understanding and measuring retention rates and other key metrics. Gail Perry suggested stamping out stupidity (mostly male) with basic education for boards and executive leaders on how fundraising works. Jay Love added the helpful […]

Learn More March 30, 2017

A Man Of Infinite Patience In A World Of Imposters

Roger surprised and impressed me yesterday with the incredible display of patience and tolerance displayed in his post, Donor Retention: Good News And Poor Excuses. The ‘good news’ in his post was that, according a Boomerang survey of 775 nonprofits, 67% are tracking their donor retention rate, as compared to 55% in 2014. That improvement […]

Learn More March 29, 2017

Donor Retention: Good News And Poor Excuses

At last! I’m pleased to report that there seems to be some evidence that more and more fundraisers are paying attention to the issue of donor retention. Although we’re far from breaking out the champagne in celebration of universal recognition that holding on to donors is an essential activity, the new Bloomerang survey, The State […]

Learn More March 28, 2017