Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Direct Mail Will Outlive Us All

Direct mail is: [ ] Dead [ ] Near Dead [ ] Nowhere near dead. Over the 9 years Tom and I’ve been agitating, few topics are the subject of more debate than the all-too-familiar prognostication that direct mail is either dead or dying. We’ve never bought into that myth as you can see from […]

Learn More May 15, 2015

Is Your Nonprofit Still Google-Friendly?

Way back when (2013), The Agitator reported — Are You Ready To Pass Inspection? — on a Google study on donor online giving. As we noted: “One of the key findings was the extent to which donors now appear to comparison shop before giving. The Google study says 75% of donors begin the research they conduct on […]

Learn More May 14, 2015

Time For A New Deal For Donors?

Ken Burnett has just completed his 5 part series on the Future of Fundraising with a thought-provoking finale: Fundraising and the rule of law. [ You can read The Agitator’s summary of the Introduction and first Four Parts here and here. Better yet, bookmark or place in your ‘Classics’ or ‘Top Priority’ folder Ken’s complete and unabridged […]

Learn More May 13, 2015

Have I Mentioned Online Video Before?

Yes. Probably enough to make you think I own stock in one of the major online video platforms, like Brightcove or Akamai [I don’t; but with 7 billion plus videos watched every day on YouTube and Facebook, I wish I could buy some.] OK, so I’m addicted. I don’t think a day goes by that […]

Learn More May 12, 2015

Speed Dating Or Donor Commitment?

It seems to me that two conflicting streams of thought regarding donor relationships are percolating in fundraising circles these days, particularly amongst those focused on direct response fundraising. [I’ll posit for purposes of this post that no one engaged in major gift and foundation fundraising would quarrel with the notion that the deeper the relationship cultivated, […]

Learn More May 11, 2015

The Keys To Successful Fundraising

In the first decade of my career, before discovering the wonders of direct mail, I did honest labor managing capital campaigns and major gift efforts. In those early years I was blessed with a remarkable mentor named G. Richard Kuch. He was an old school fundraiser and campaigner. Meaning, he believed strongly that none of […]

Learn More May 8, 2015