Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Need Something To Be Thankful For? Back To St Joseph’s Indian School.

About a week ago I wrote about this story in The Nonprofit Quarterly: “Group Uses Fictitious Children to Boost Fundraising: Poverty Porn?” I guess the title itself suggests that publication’s verdict! Our commenters were more tolerant. Said Chip Heartfield: “It is not clear if the stories are composites or represent one child whose real name […]

Learn More November 26, 2014

Fundraising Myths And Dark Legends

One of my all-time favorite fundraising copywriters is Tom Gaffny. For nearly 30 years he ran the creative shop at Epsilon and continues to post top results with his firm, Tom Gaffny Consulting. What sets Tom and other great fundraising copywriters apart from the pack is their ability to go way beyond skillfully putting words […]

Learn More November 25, 2014

On Playing Mozart To A Pig

Sometimes when The Agitator offers proven — and always free — advice and tools, but gets few takers, it feels like we’re playing Mozart to a pig. Silence and little response. As Grandma Craver used to say, “It wastes your time and annoys the pig.” Not this time. Sixty days ago we offered a free-forever […]

Learn More November 24, 2014

Can’t Invent Needs

In a recent post, Seth Godin argues: “I can’t think of a single time that an individual or an organization has created a brand-new worldview, spread it and then led that tribe.” He notes that there were social rebels before there were Harley Davidson motorcycles, and Rastafarians before Bob Marley. His point in Inventing a tribe […]

Learn More November 21, 2014

More ‘Deception’ … Keeping The Pot Stirred

My post on Tuesday — Your Views On The Trick or Tweak Debate — has generated some spirited discussion of the ‘overhead aversion’ issue. While passions are inflamed, I thought I might pour some more fuel on the fire … which is what you should expect from The Agitator. So here are two attempts to […]

Learn More November 20, 2014

Start Discriminating Among Your Donors

Editors’ Note: The following is an excerpt from Roger’s Retention Fundraising: the new art and science of keeping your donors for life. Available here in paper or e-book versions. ————————————————————————- All donors are not equal. At least not when it comes to building retention and lifetime value. The sooner you identify your best donors and […]

Learn More November 19, 2014