Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Is your nonprofit a “watch, observe and guess” organization or a “listen and act” one?

Donor transactional data tells you zero about “Why” something happened. Maybe the sector doesn’t care… All the quantitative data from your website, email marketing tools, direct mail response data….opens, clicks, visits, time on site, response rate, conversion rate, social media shares and on and on and on. Al those reports slicing and dicing and creating […]

Learn More October 7, 2014

Wanted: Retention Superstars

Agitator readers know well how incessantly Roger and I beat the donor retention drum. Heck, Roger’s even written a book on the subject, Retention Fundraising. But sometimes, when you think you’ve said it all, someone comes along and makes an observation that shocks you to attention, forcing you to admit … “I never looked at […]

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Lessons ‘The Ice Bucket Challenge’ Can Teach Us All

When producers of TV talk and cable news shows score an extraordinary guest appearance, it’s called a ‘get‘. Well, last Friday Tony Martignetti’s Nonprofit Radio scored fundraising media’s equivalent of a huge ‘get’ — an interview with Barbara Newhouse, the CEO of the ALS Association, better known to most as ‘The Ice Bucket Challenge’ people. […]

Learn More October 6, 2014

Looking To Silas Marner

I’m older than most of the trees outside the window at the desk where I’m writing this. But, for some reason the memory of my 9th grade English teacher, Ed Longenecker, keeps coming back and back these last two days. Especially his readings from George Eliot’s Silas Marner. “Silas Marner, child of scorn, grew old […]

Learn More October 3, 2014

Rockin’ Into The Future

In 1969, even with my hair in a mega-fro and wearing an embroidered and beaded denim work shirt (or maybe because of that) I was hired as the fundraiser to raise the seed money and help launch a new U.S. citizens’ movement called ‘Common Cause’. My professional colleagues thought I was nuts. Asking $15 a […]

Learn More October 2, 2014

Ring! Ring! Telemarketing Mysteries And Case Studies

If there ever there were a medium where nonprofits consistently get it wrong it’s telemarketing. In my experience no medium, short of a personal visit, is as powerful. IF … used correctly, which unfortunately is seldom the case. CEOs and boards generally hate telemarketing. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that few fundraisers understand […]

Learn More October 1, 2014