Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Bad Week For Brits. Worse For The Yanks. Terrible For Us All.

If, following last week’s death of Olive Cooke, fundraisers in the UK face an image problem involving over-zealous solicitations, their problem pales in comparison to this week’s American version. On Tuesday the U.S. government’s Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in all 50 states and the District of Columbia filed suit against 4 cancer charities […]

Learn More May 21, 2015

Smartphones: Part 2, Marketing Advice

OK, so you’ve heard plenty of stats by now regarding mobile phone usage. And if you haven’t, just check out yesterday’s Agitator post — Smartphones: Part 1, The Data — featuring comprehensive data from Pew Research. But just to underscore once more the importance of mobile, here are some stats via the Center for Media […]

Learn More May 20, 2015

Smartphones: Part 1, The Data

Today is the first of two overview articles on smartphones, marketing and fundraising. This first article deals with smartphone ownership and usage in the US. [I would expect similar patterns in the other countries where Agitator readers tend to congregate.] Tomorrow I’ll turn to marketing implications, featuring two or three ‘guide’ resources I think fundraisers will […]

Learn More May 19, 2015

REPEAT! Take This To Your Board & CEO Today!

“Here’s your disturbing wake-up call for Monday, September 17th …” That’s how The Agitator started its week nearly 3 years ago. That post — Take This to Your Board & CEO Today! — warned of the tsunami-like wave of major media stories spotlighting questionable fundraising practices and alerted readers that great damage was in store […]

Learn More May 18, 2015

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