Award Winning Blog - Agitator

The data points you need from the new Fundraising Effectiveness Project

There is a quality debate going on right now at The Agitator (is there any other kind there?) about the extent to which nonprofits use donor identities to customize their appeals. This is subtopic of the big introspective question we have as fundraisers: how are we doing? This discussion is wonderfully timed, because we have […]

Learn More February 2, 2017

Are You A Beggar Or A Fundraiser?

This marketer, writing in Targeted Marketing, clearly has had enough of the unceasing fundraising appeals he’s received from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Here’s the eighth message, which pushed him over the edge. And here’s his reaction … “Final notice”? That reeks of desperation covered by a thin veneer of bullshit. “Emotional hot-button copy is essential […]

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Tom Ahern Wants To Know … And So Should You

Lots of great questions and comments popped up in response to The Dangerous Dictum of “Mail more. Make more”. Especially appropriate was a question by Tom Ahern: “Is there a bottom line for various sized groups?” Of course, as other commenters noted, there are different approaches depending on the organization or type of organization. For […]

Learn More February 1, 2017

Bring It On!

It’s terrifically gratifying to see the public abhorrence to President Trump’s idiocy regarding immigrations and refugee bans, the environment, family planning and abortion services … and he’s barely getting started. [Sorry if you’re on Trump’s wavelength on these issues, but I can’t think of a less inflammatory word than ‘idiocy’, and The Agitator is, after all, about agitating.] […]

Learn More January 31, 2017

Do You Want To Be Wanted?

Would you believe it took a study to discover we want to be wanted?! That’s right, the global ad agency, Wunderman, commissioned a study with Penn Schoen Berland that found that 79% of consumers in the US and 72% in the UK between the ages of 18-65 want brands to actively demonstrate that “they understand and […]

Learn More January 30, 2017

Cats And Dogs And Donors

In one of his most clever and amusing posts ever, What my cat taught me about fundraising, fundraising creative Jeff Brooks gives us an important warning about relationships built upon delusions. He notes that the delusions he and his cat have about each other — the cat thinks Jeff’s a cat, and Jeff thinks the cat […]

Learn More January 27, 2017