Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Matching Gifts: Bonanza Or Sham?

Every few weeks I wade into the Sea of Sameness that is my pile of unopened fundraising mail. While leafing through the current batch I came across 3 Matching Gift offers. One advances the offer of a 3 for 1 match … another expresses the urgency of a 4 for 1 match … the third […]

Learn More May 28, 2015

They’re Looking At Us!

Most of the time, when I write about our commercial marketing brethren, I’m talking about stuff they’re doing that we in the nonprofit sector might learn from. Today, the tables are turned. I’ve noticed two articles lately from commercial guys praising nonprofit marketing efforts. Here’s what they like. The first article, by direct marketer Bob […]

Learn More May 27, 2015

Fixing Hidden Leaks #3: Ban Good Writers From Your Website

Nothing will drive website visitors away faster than turning a real writer loose on your website. Here’s the problem. All good writers want people to read what they write. To do this they tell stories. They want to share. They want to explain. They long for the reader to get lost within the writer’s world. […]

Learn More May 26, 2015

How Many Did You Lose?

With our US readers celebrating Memorial Day on Monday, the majority of Agitator readers won’t be reading this post until Tuesday morning. But do I get a day off?! [If Roger wasn’t such a slavedriver (insisting: “You live in New Zealand, you have no right to be celebrating US holidays!”), I’d be watching the French […]

Learn More May 25, 2015

I Hate To Rain On Your Parade, But …

Our US readers are heading off today for a well-deserved three-day weekend, with the celebration of it’s-almost-summer Memorial Day. A major parade day when I was a kid in small town New Jersey … we kids got to march in our Scout uniforms or sport team uniforms. I had a choice, since I was both […]

Learn More May 22, 2015

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