Award Winning Blog - Agitator

What Are You?

Are you really a Fundraiser? Or, are you just a Fundraising Monitor? “Why monitor a problem if you don’t fix it?” Here at The Agitator we sure do a lot of monitoring. Tom and I think we should also be doing more along the lines of encouraging, debating and reporting on ‘fixing’. It’s clear from […]

Learn More May 31, 2016

Why Monitor If You Don’t Fix?

In tomorrow’s post, Roger will talk about finding fundraising solutions … solutions with an empirical basis, not folklore. He poses the question: “Why monitor a problem if you don’t fix it?” But the heavy lifting can wait a day … today is Memorial Day, a holiday for our U.S. readers. However, here’s a light-hearted preview … U.S. […]

Learn More May 30, 2016

Fundraising That Makes A Dog Sick

I’m somewhat amused by the debate over volume. How many appeals make you ‘donor-centric’, how many not. My frequency schedule is better and bigger than your frequency schedule. Plus, I use more ‘you’ pronouns. I think ‘you’ pronouns and all that ‘donor love’ stuff is great, but it’s beside the point. I do want to point […]

Learn More May 27, 2016

Need: Milk And Eggs

I just read a fascinating article from Nielsen about impulse shopping. As it happens, fresh produce, coffee, milk and eggs are the needs (i.e., products) most likely to drive consumers to a store. Indeed, consumers buy fresh produce and milk in 40% of all trips to the store. In the non-food space, prescription medications and pet […]

Learn More May 26, 2016

When Women Win

I unwrapped the package from Simone Joyoux and out fell a card bearing this moving quotation from Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman in the U.S. to become a federal judge: “Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.” Inside the package was a remarkable gift of a book […]

Learn More May 25, 2016

Words Or Video … Content Still King

Seth Godin blogged recently that while the web was built on words, today’s internet is built on video … “Much more difficult to create well, far more impact when it works.” He argues that professionalism still matters, even if anyone with a smartphone can make a video. But here’s his clincher point: “Great video doesn’t […]

Learn More May 24, 2016