Award Winning Blog - Agitator

‘Get Lucky Fundraising’

Loyalty 360 bills itself as “the loyalty marketer’s association, and publishes a daily e-newsletter from which I extract occasional nuggets. If you want to read about the trials and tribulations of customer-focused marketing in the commercial space, this is as good a source as any. I just read an article titled Five Critical Mistakes That […]

Learn More September 23, 2013

I Can’t Get Enough Fundraising Emails!

Yesterday I took a pot shot at email fundraising — comparing it to writing jingles versus songs. And, in response to a query from Harry Lynch at Sanky, I stand by my comment: “I don’t think I’ve ever read a ‘moving’ email appeal. But I’m prepared to be converted … feel free anyone to send […]

Learn More September 20, 2013

‘Crafting’ versus ‘Producing’ … Writing Songs versus Jingles

According to comScore, US e-commerce sales (via desktop) were up 13% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2013. In that quarter, there were over $50 billion in retail e-commerce sales, and online sales accounted for over 10% of discretionary dollars spent, the highest share yet recorded. OK, so people are buying more and more online. […]

Learn More September 19, 2013

How Does Your Donor Behavior Compare To Canada?

An excellent review of the donor landscape in Canada has just been released by fundraising agency hjc and Blackbaud. The study profiles giving behavior across four generations — Civics, Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y — looking at giving amounts and future intentions, preferred channels, focus of giving, the works. Plus, here and there, some […]

Learn More September 18, 2013

Yelling Louder Won’t Sell

Yesterday, I wrote about overdoing negative messaging. Another marketing communications error is simply turning up the volume. A recurring mistake amongst many marketers, faced with declining response, is simply to ‘yell louder’. That is, keep pumping out the same message, just buying more ads, trying more channels, etc. This article, Yelling Louder Won’t Sell Your […]

Learn More September 17, 2013

Negative Versus Positive Framing

Think about it … we’d all rather hang around positive — versus negative — people. So why wouldn’t that apply to a nonprofit that’s looking to establish a donor relationship with you or me? Why would you expect a continuing barrage of negative, downer messages to make a donor look forward to your ‘visits’?! That’s […]

Learn More September 16, 2013