Award-Winning Blog


Participate In Agitator Drug Trials

 If The Agitator were part of Big Pharma, we’d be writing to invite you to participate in the development and testing of vaccine to ensure retention – a breakthrough in the war against donor attrition. At the end of this post we’re going to call for 5 nonprofit professionals working within organizations and 5 outside […]

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Super Retention Program – Cerebral Palsy Alliance

Yesterday I complained … only ONE retention superstar had responded from our Agitator audience — Colorado Public Radio. But I shouldn’t complain; it’s quality that counts. A second superb case study has arrived. Jonathon Grapsas at Flat Earth Direct in Australia has been working on retention amongst clients who do much of their donor acquisition […]

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Ingredients of Retention Success

Last week, Roger and I asked for retention superstars to tell us their stories. We loosely set the superstar benchmark at an overall 70% retention rate. Given that we have thousands of readers, who generally respond with enthusiasm, we hoped to have dozens of retention success stories to share with you. But no such luck […]

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Antibodies View Retention As Disruption

There’s little doubt in my mind that, when it comes to ‘retention’, the powers-that-be in most organizations will view any serious efforts to improve donor loyalty and commitment (retention) as disruptive. In turn, they will either deliberately or subconsciously move to subvert any efforts at improvement. All organisms contain antibodies — cells in their immune […]

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Retention Rates Are Sick … Is It Terminal?

Yesterday Roger delivered the latest gloomy news about donor retention rates. Gloomiest of all is the fact that overall retention rates have fallen from 50% to 39% over the past seven years, as reported by the AFP/Urban Institute’s 2013 Fundraising Effectiveness Project Survey. What that suggests is a broad systemic failure, not some momentary glitch […]

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Lemmings With Suicide Vests

Once again … the nonprofit world has painfully proven Aldous Huxley’s maxim that “facts do not cease to exist simply because they are ignored.” Once again … for the 7th year in a row the Donor Retention Rate among 2,840 American nonprofits surveyed has again dropped. Once again … millions and millions of $$ have […]

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