Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Fundraisers Are Like Farmers

“Don’t blame the economy” seems to be a popular mantra among some fundraisers lately. These optimists appear to believe that financially struggling households will continue to give just as much as they always have … they’ll just eat less, or forgo paying next month’s electric bill or health insurance premium. Somehow, lower disposable incomes will […]

Learn More August 19, 2013

Frugality Persists

Citing data from Giving USA 2013, back in June Roger discussed the very slow recovery of charitable giving since the 2008 recession — giving in 2012 was up 3.9% (only 1.5% adjusting for inflation) over 2011. At that rate, it would take 6-7 more years for giving to reach the pre-recession high of $344.48 billion […]

Learn More August 16, 2013

Does Mobile Matter To Fundraisers?

If you’re an online fundraiser, it sure better! Mobile phones and tablets now account for 41% of all email opens in the US, up from 27% a year ago, according to this study from eMarketer. Epsilon goes further, and says that for most of their clients, mobile now accounts for 60% or more of opens. […]

Learn More August 15, 2013

What Do You Really Know About Your Donor?

In the era of Big Data, marketers — and that includes fundraisers — are supposed to know everything possible about their customer/donor. Notice I use the singular … donor. The days are gone when it’s good enough to know about your donors in the aggregate. Categories are indeed useful to marketers, but increasingly not sufficient. […]

Learn More August 14, 2013

The Agitator vs The Chronicle

Yesterday Roger wrote, in effect, ‘Get real fundraisers, to raise money, focus on Boomers and older.” Indeed, I once heard Roger comment that funeral directors don’t try to sell burial plots to teenagers … they patiently await their market! But then today, the Chronicle of Philanthropy urges: “People in their 20s and 30s already donate […]

Learn More August 13, 2013

Your Donors Are Old! Celebrate!

Odds are that in countless budget and board meetings this summer and fall there will be the usual share of naïve hand wringers warning that ‘our donors are too old’ and urging that ‘we simply must spend more to attract younger donors’. Fortunately, Blackbaud has just released its Next Generation of American Giving study that […]

Learn More August 12, 2013