Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Doing Your Best Work

You’re probably reading this on Monday morning. Are you going to do your best work this week? Indeed, what motivates you to do your best work? A deadline, prospect of recognition by peers or superiors, fear of failure, the thrill of creating something new, the goal itself (personal or institutional), team élan, something much deeper […]

Learn More October 24, 2016

Don’t Forget Your Mail

I love the mail. I love checking my mailbox — a real mail box with a red flag — six days a week. Indeed I even have two mailboxes … and one is actually at a real post office! I treasure my copper mailbox key. I love to feel my way through the mail, regarding […]

Learn More October 21, 2016

The math of opt-in nudging

We have a new white paper here about how to get people to opt in here. It’s great; I strongly recommend it. There’s a section talking about why to get people to opt-in, from regulatory pressures to response rates to decreased costs. But there is always someone within an organization who is incapable of seeing […]

Learn More October 20, 2016

Are Liberals Better Fundraisers?

Given that today’s buzz is probably focused on last night’s final US presidential candidate debate, I thought I’d stick to a political theme. A couple of times recently (here, latest here), I’ve grumped about political fundraising, especially the incessant barrage of emails from various arms of the Clinton fundraising machine. Then I noted (here) the […]

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Trump … The Fundraising Apprentice

For all his asserted business prowess, one business Donald Trump has not mastered is direct mail fundraising. I find this a bit surprising, as conservatives and farther-out right-wingers are historically very good at direct mail. Remember the name Richard Viguerie? However, as reported in DMNews, the latest campaign reports show that Trump has raised an estimated $155 million […]

Learn More October 19, 2016

What happens if you listen to your donors TOO POORLY

Let me get this out of the way first: I’m a Jeff Brooks fan. I grew up in direct marketing with his Fundraising is Beautiful podcast* and Future Fundraising Now blog. I’ll always remember my first blog post where I said to my wife that Jeff Brooks linked to me in the same tone of […]

Learn More October 18, 2016