Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Insufficient Collaboration — Barriers To Growth, Part 8

Of the more than 1 million nonprofits in the U.S., nearly 75% post annual revenues below $500,000. This leaves little or no room for the ‘science’ part of fundraising, like data analytics and predictive modeling. Organizations with higher revenue can afford the analytics and technology essential to fostering growth in today’s markets. But what about […]

Learn More July 22, 2014

Email Do’s And Don’ts

I seem to have accumulated a number of email related articles in — where else — my email in-box, so here’s a bit of a clean-out. First, a good overview of how your emails are being opened. This study from Campaign Monitor, which looked at 1.8 billion opens (be sure to check out the ‘Read […]

Learn More July 21, 2014

Will Somebody’s Grandaughter’s Friend Eat Your Lunch?

Back in June, I wrote a short post titled, Is Your Fundraising Stuck? It was a bit of a challenge to fundraisers. If your fundraising is lagging, is that really because of factors you can’t control, and so can conveniently blame, or do you need to look afresh at yourself and your commitment to innovation, […]

Learn More July 18, 2014

Direct Mail Yields Major Gift Donors

On Monday we reported on the American Cancer Society (ACS) and its project over the past year to re-examine the role of direct mail in its fundraising program. ACS is committed to a sophisticated multi-channel marketing approach, in which direct mail remains a key work horse, and in which the full potential value of each […]

Learn More July 17, 2014

How Valid Is Your Fundraising Yardstick?

In Part 7 of our Barriers to Growth series, I noted that the inability or unwillingness to take a hard and realistic look at an organization’s fundraising potential represents a significant barrier to meaningful growth. Why? Because it’s simply too easy to make excuses and simply say “we’re using best practices” and “we’re doing as […]

Learn More July 16, 2014

Easy Excuses & Low Expectations — Barriers To Growth, Part 7

I’m convinced that a major barrier to most nonprofits’ growth is that there is little understanding of an organization’s true potential. As a result, far too many organizations and their consultants set their sights far too low, settling for the average given in a benchmark like Giving USA, which year after year, for the past […]

Learn More July 15, 2014