Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Wildly Profitable Monthly Giving

Whenever I see ‘monthly giving’ in a article title, I jump on it, because there’s no more productive way to raise funds from existing donors and I’m always trolling for advice on how to do it better. So here’s 18 Tips to Create a Wildly Profitable Monthly Giving Program, from Gail Perry at Fired Up […]

Learn More August 7, 2013

Meet With Your 27,000 Best Donors Tonight

Some days I wish I could call an emergency meeting of all Agitator readers, if for no other reason than to get your immediate reaction to one or another of our insane ideas — or at least Tom’s insane ideas. Until last week I figured that the time, cost and logistics of reaching 5,000 Agitatees […]

Learn More August 6, 2013

141 Shopping Days Until Christmas

Thursday’s mid-year release of the Blackbaud Index shows overall charitable giving up 2.2% and online giving up 14% for the first six months of 2013. More importantly, it should remind us all that now — today, or tomorrow at the latest — is the perfect time to get started planning for online year-end fundraising, tuning […]

Learn More August 5, 2013

Latinas Have The Purchasing Power

That’s not a typo. Hispanic women are the growing powerhouse of consumer spending in the US. Not only are their numbers and buying power increasing dramatically, Hispanic women seem to call the shots when money decisions are made within the typical Hispanic household. [Of course, my wife says that’s just a continuation of a long-established […]

Learn More August 2, 2013

Music To My Ears

Peter Buffett, musician and philanthropist, wrote this piece — The Charitable-Industrial Complex — last week in the NY Times. Much of what he says relates to the programmatic side of what major donors attempt to do and their motivations. For example, he describes “conscience laundering” … “As more lives and communities are destroyed by the […]

Learn More August 1, 2013

Millions Of Words, But Only Six Emotions

Nice short item from Seth Godin the other day. He says there are only six ‘buttons’ to press — or, “keys on the keyboard” — if you’re trying to spread an idea or sell something … Anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness and surprise. Four negatives, one positive, and one that could go either way (probably […]

Learn More July 31, 2013