Award Winning Blog - Agitator

To Pay Or Not To Pay

Peter Maple, a fellow agitator over at “The Association of Grumpy Old Fundraisers Who Know Stuff” (AGOF) reports on a minor furor in the British tabloids the Sun, the Mirror and the Daily Mail regarding paying a minor reality TV celebrity a fee to back a campaign for the children’s charity Barnardo’s, which reportedly raised £242 million last year. […]

Learn More February 23, 2015

Which Test Won?

I get a feed that presents nothing but various direct marketing tests, almost always from the commercial space. It’s called Which Test Won? You don’t need to add it to your in-box; I’ll watch it for you. Finally, the other day they put up a test involving a nonprofit, in this case Oxfam UK. It […]

Learn More February 20, 2015

Enough About Donors Already!

Enough about donor, donor, donor. Organizations count too. Otherwise, Molly or Mike could take their $25 apiece and save the world from hunger, global warming, Republicans — you name it — all by their little lonesomes. I always find it difficult to disagree with Jeff Brooks. And yesterday, there I was, nodding along to his latest […]

Learn More February 19, 2015

Paving The Way For Empty Fundraising Mailboxes

The watchdog Charity Navigator is changing its rating rules to penalize nonprofits who fail to provide an ‘opt-in’ process for the rental or exchange of their donors’ names. The rule, announced on CN’s blog, goes into effect ten days from now on March 1st for charities they review. To qualify for the full CN blessing […]

Learn More February 18, 2015

What Does Your Big Sign Say?

To my tastes, Seth Godin is at his best when he’s at his briefest. Here’s a post of his from the weekend that says something hugely important in a few lines. [I could learn from that!] The post is titled: Measure what you care about. “It not always easy to measure what matters,” he says. […]

Learn More February 17, 2015

A Valentine For Fundraisers

The Agitator rested on Valentine’s Day this year. However, while we were eating our chocolates, Cupid delivered a thought-provoking message to our inbox in the form of an opinion piece from Jennifer and Peter Buffett, co-presidents of the NoVo Foundation, appearing in last week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy. Before we get to the Valentine, a reminder […]

Learn More February 16, 2015