Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Paris And A Sector Of Optimistic Grinders

Tom Watson has written an excellent column in the Chronicle of Philanthropy reflecting on the aftermath of the Paris attacks — The Horror of the Paris Attacks Reminds Us Why Nonprofits Matter. He opens fittingly with this quote from Voltaire: “Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.” Commenting on the […]

Learn More November 17, 2015

In Search of the Silver Bullet

Over the weekend I worked on the ‘Top 10 Bad Practices’ section of a book I’m writing. Because this is the season when many groups are putting out or reviewing Requests for Proposal (RFPs), I thought I’d share some of my notes — and a special video — with you in case you’re on either […]

Learn More November 16, 2015

Myanmar Tops In Giving

The Charities Aid Foundation (UK) has published its World Giving Index, which uses three simple questions to measure ‘giving’ around the world. The Gallup polling organization asked these questions in 145 countries during 2014. Here are the questions: Have you done any of the following in the past month? Helped a stranger, or someone you […]

Learn More November 13, 2015

Beware Of The Sustainer Strangler

I know you have lots on your plate as we near year-end. But if you have monthly sustaining donors or any type of installment givers, please add this data processing/payment processing morsel to your ‘Urgent: To Do’ list. In response to the rising tide of credit card theft and fraud over the past few years, […]

Learn More November 12, 2015

The Old And The New

Two stats in a recent newsletter I received were reminders that the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ can co-exist quite nicely, thank you. On the one hand, this DM News article reports that the US Postal Service expects to deliver 15 billion pieces of holiday mail this Christmas season (including 600 million packages), a 10.5% increase […]

Learn More November 11, 2015

Major Gift Fundraising For Smaller Organizations

Lots of time and money is spent on identifying success factors in major gift fundraising for large organizations. Very little on factors that make a big difference for smaller organizations. Until now. Amy Eisenstein, author of Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops, has just released a study done in conjunction with Prof. Adrian Sargent, director of […]

Learn More November 10, 2015