Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Being Creative

Roger and I are always going on about innovation. Here’s a reminder post, but try searching ‘innovation’ on The Agitator website for plenty more. Being innovative means being creative. And what are the prerequisites of being creative? According to humorist John Cleese, there are five necessary conditions … Space — away from your usual pressures […]

Learn More May 23, 2014

Passion Assassins

In his post yesterday, Proud To Be A Fundraiser, Roger cited an article by our UK colleague and fellow curmudgeon Ken Burnett, titled Keeping the right fundraisers. Now, given that The Agitator’s niche audience consists entirely of fundraisers of various stripes and capacities, one might think that both of those titles would attract a fair […]

Learn More May 22, 2014

Proud To Be A Fundraiser

Flogging registration and attendance at the U.K.’s Institute of Fundraising’s July Conference, Alan Clayton lays out why pride in our profession is so important. In Proud to Be a Fundraiser, the Clayton of the Clayton Burnett consultancy that commissioned the Great Fundraising study by Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang reminds readers of Adrian’s intonation: “In […]

Learn More May 21, 2014

Going Mainstream?

A couple of days ago, the Chronicle of Philanthropy excitedly announced that online fundraising has gone “mainstream”. Wow, I thought … can’t wait to see the tsunami of dollars raised. However, it turned that the Chron was simply echoing findings of others like Blackbaud and Network for Good that online fundraising enjoyed strong year-over-year growth […]

Learn More May 20, 2014

Lousy Boards — Barriers To Growth, Part 3

Alfred Sloan was the General Motors Chair and CEO who led GM from the 1920s through the ‘50s and grew it to become largest corporation on Earth at the time. In a board meeting at GM, Sloan asked the board about an important decision: “I take it that everyone is in basic agreement about this […]

Learn More May 19, 2014

What Your Story Must Tell

You’ve probably heard a zillion times by now that the best marketing communications involve telling stories. Stories that define your brand. Stories that your customers/donors can readily absorb and respond to emotionally. Stories penetrate. So, are you telling stories? And how effectively? Here’s a branding creative, Chad Cipoletti, writing on the subject, Three Questions Every […]

Learn More May 16, 2014