Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Mistaking Obligation for Reciprocity

Imagine two donors. One downloaded crucial information from your website; maybe a treatment checklist for newly diagnosed cancer patients. The second received a branded tote bag in the mail. Both feel an urge to give. But an urge of different quality. The first feels genuine reciprocity: “They helped me. I want to give back” The […]

Learn More August 11, 2025

What Makes a Story Stick? The Psychology Behind Fundraising Narratives

We all want a story that speaks to us, one that fits the inner narrative we’re writing, editing, and living every day. But who is this “me” the story should speak to? That’s a surprisingly complex answer as I’m a bundle of contradictions—just like you, and exactly not like you. Personality psychologists often describe three […]

Learn More August 8, 2025

Connection Starts Where Most Segmentation Stops

If we want real connection, we have to stop pretending our generic segmentations are anything but shortcuts. We slice people up by what’s available—age, income, gender, channel, how they transact, etc. But the minute we start grouping by these surface traits, we’ve injected bias. And not just demographic bias, behavioral bias. We’re assuming the thing […]

Learn More August 6, 2025

Is Your Appeal Too Much, Too Soon?

Researchers ran a simple experiment. Two versions of a fundraising campaign with same photo, same story, same goal. One used the phrase “malignant tumors” in the headline, the other, a softer “illnesses.” The result? Naming the disease performed much worse. But this testing was on a crowdfunding platform with donors seeing saw multiple campaigns side-by-side. […]

Learn More August 4, 2025

Matching Gifts Are So Tired But Here’s a Twist

We’re not fans of matching gift offers. They used to be strategic: tied to a big gift or a time-sensitive campaign. Now they’re everywhere, overused and generic and often the match isn’t a message, it’s the message. Make no mistake, you’re subsidizing the donation and sensitizing people to the discount, just like retailers coupons. How so? […]

Learn More August 1, 2025

Ten Years of Hope, Hype, and Heartburn

I’ve been poking around in the Agitator attic lately—blowing dust off ten years of posts, decks, podcasts, conference swag, industry reports and other artifacts of our beloved trade. Call it fundraising death cleaning. Call it archaeology with spreadsheets. Either way, it’s a look at what mattered to fundraisers back in 2015, and what matters now […]

Learn More July 30, 2025