Award Winning Blog - Agitator

A Dangerous Myth – Over-solicitation causes poor retention.

We don’t typically name names in these posts. However, on occasion, it is required. Penelope Burk, of Cygnus Research makes this claim, “Over-soliciting and insisting on unrestricted gifts are largely why 65% of donors who make a first gift never make a second and why 90% or more donors who start giving are gone within […]

Learn More September 30, 2013

Top 5 Innovative Fundraising Ideas

Today I’m shamelessly exploiting the hard work of Angie Moore, who recently reported 50 Innovative Fundraising Ideas she collected from readers of Fundraising Success. I’ve boiled her list down to my own Top 5. In no particular order, here goes. No actually, #1 deserves to be #1 … 1. “Normally, fundraising departments increase their financial […]

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The Secret Life Of A Donor

Mark Phillips of Bluefrog in the UK is one of the most insightful bloggers I read. He recently posted This is not a strategy. The title got my attention. I clicked and was delighted to see that his original source was Dilbert (actually Dogbert), a true fount of organizational knowledge. As Mark notes, here’s an […]

Learn More September 27, 2013

Persuading Your Donors

The Agitator has a bit of a debate underway as to whether in fundraising our task is to change donors (which I regard as moving someone from disinterest and apathy to at least some level of commitment) versus tapping and activating some sentiment and concern already in place in their heart and mind. Either way, […]

Learn More September 26, 2013

Sounds So Simple

Seth Godin recently wrote, Three questions to ask your marketing team. He makes it sound so easy! Of course, you do need to ask the right questions in the first place, if your marketing/fundraising strategy is to have any validity at all. That said, coming up with the answers that will arm you for success […]

Learn More September 25, 2013

Lifus Interruptus!

How often does your donor think about you? Don’t kid yourselves folks, most of your donors never think about your organization spontaneously! They are busy living their lives, taking care of kids, watching TV, worrying about their jobs or retirement security or next date, cheering for their team, planning vacations, grocery shopping for tonight’s dinner. […]

Learn More September 24, 2013