Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Is Your Quality Data 3,008 or So 2000 and Late?

The Black Eyed Peas may not dominate my playlists, but they were right about one thing. Some ideas age badly, and you tend not to notice until you’re already behind. Retention data is one of those ideas. Not because it is useless, but because it tells you what already happened, long after you had a […]

Learn More February 6, 2026

Can Direct Response Do Brand’s Job?

I was wrong about direct response and and brand. I told myself a comforting story, direct response acquisition spend is our brand spend. We’re reaching new people, telling stories, and putting our name in front of audiences who had never heard of us. Sure, we also asked for money but that didn’t negate the brand […]

Learn More February 2, 2026

Your Generational Mkt Deck: Horoscopes in Business Casual

I’m still alive and the world hasn’t ended, so it must be time for our semi-irregular tilt at the horsh$% windmills of generational marketing. The equine dung pile of evidence against is deep, here’s another gem. BBH Labs created a “Group Cohesion Score” to measure how alike different groups actually are, using UK survey data […]

Learn More January 30, 2026

Cost to Raise a Dollar Is a Terrible North Star

Nonprofits don’t drift into short-termism because fundraisers are shallow, boards are naïve, or donors are irrational. They drift because volume machine system scorecard makes short-termism feel responsible. Conversion rate, cost per acquisition, ROAS, and cost to raise a dollar define success as whatever is immediate and attributable. Inside that world, the only decisions that look […]

Learn More January 28, 2026

Why Not Asking Can Be the Highest-Value Decision

Fundraising calendars carry an assumption so familiar it rarely gets questioned. If we aren’t asking, we must be losing $. The logic feels airtight. Appeals go out, money comes back, reports show positive net and the activity feels justified. Asking seems to cause giving, so more asking should produce more revenue. That belief survives because […]

Learn More January 26, 2026

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? What Real Personalization Actually Buys You

Picture two donors who give to the same food bank. One always has a plan, calendars are full, bills paid early. They give because keeping things stable matters, and because someone needs to make sure the system holds. The other is just as generous, but wired differently. She’s energized by new ideas, new approaches, and […]

Learn More January 23, 2026