Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Take Your Pick: Overly Confident Or Confidently Stupid

“Often wrong, never in doubt.” That’s the mantra of many consultants, CEOs and development directors who survive year after year despite non or lousy performance. Like you, I’ve often wondered why so many dumb asses survive in our sector. Of course all of us know the answer: there are scores more nonprofit openings than competent […]

Learn More January 15, 2014

You Promised More Cash

OK, you did it. There you were, pressed by your CEO or Executive Director in front of the rest of the senior staff … how much net income — as in, cash we can spend this year on salaries, rent and program — will you deliver in 2014? [I appreciate that probably he or she […]

Learn More January 14, 2014

Donor Service: Cost Center Or Profit Center?

The holiday shopping season, coupled with the current wave of renewed interest in raising the minimum wage and the plight of workers at places like Walmart, got me thinking about — what else? — donor retention. Seems to me there is significant similarity between the management mindset of some of the Big Box stores and […]

Learn More January 13, 2014

What Will You Do To Improve Your Contribution?

Citing the Hilborn blog, creative whiz Jeff Brooks applauded their simple formula for fundraising success: Think like a fundraiser, feel like a donor. The point of both Hilborn and Brooks is that (and this applies especially if your fundraising role involves both method and message — marrying communication tactics to human motivation) you need to […]

Learn More January 10, 2014

Old Year Numbers For New Year Decisions

It’s fashionable these days for many nonprofit fundraisers and their consultants to claim they’re ‘data-driven’. Problem is, most focus on the ‘data’ part of the slogan; few understand the requirements of the second word — ‘driven’. I’m making this observation again at the start of the year because if you haven’t already done so, now […]

Learn More January 9, 2014

Leaving Donations On The Screen

One topic you can expect to see The Agitator dwell upon over the coming year is mobile. Firstly, all the media/digital monitoring services are now reporting that more than half of emails are opened with a mobile device. And mobile viewing of online video, as well as your ‘plain ole’ website, is also accelerating very […]

Learn More January 8, 2014