Award Winning Blog - Agitator

New Era Begins In 17 Years

We all know, thanks to Blackbaud, that online fundraising accounted for 6.4% of all fundraising in the US in 2013. So the direct mail army that drives direct marketed individual giving sniffs at that puny percentage, and goes back to work flexing its muscles and pumping up the nonprofit sector. Meantime, however, the growth rate […]

Learn More February 20, 2014

Top 50 Inspirations From Steve

Thanks to Steve MacLaughlin at Blackbaud for making our editorial lives at The Agitator so much easier. I’ve just been browsing through his 50 Fascinating Nonprofit Statistics. There’s enough fodder here to inspire Agitator posts for weeks! You’ll get one tomorrow. What more could you want to know about the US nonprofit sector? One of […]

Learn More February 19, 2014

Another Unsustainable Trend

I open the emails I receive from Analytical Ones with great trepidation. These folks are masters of bad news, as The Agitator has previously reported here and here. Their latest message didn’t disappoint me. [Is that the correct thing to say?!] Their apparently endless reservoir of bad news is yet to run dry. Here’s the […]

Learn More February 18, 2014

Presidents Day

With our fellow Americans, Roger and I are celebrating Presidents Day, so we’re just passing along a brief message of caution to those of our readers elsewhere in the world who have shown up at your desks this Monday morning brimming with fresh ideas and enthusiasm. When it comes to celebrating presidents, I’m partial to […]

Learn More February 17, 2014

Fundraising Land Grab

On Valentine’s Day, it’s fitting that The Agitator focus on fundraising’s equivalent of the ‘going steady’ relationship — the sustaining, committed or monthly giving donor. Chuck Longfield, founder of Target Analytics and chief scientist at Blackbaud, is one of my favorite fundraising analysts and observers. He preaches a lot about retention and how monthly giving […]

Learn More February 14, 2014

The Beauty Effect In Fundraising

The February Conference of the Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation (DMANF) opens today in Washington, DC. I won’t be able to make it, but have been reading the program. I’m deeply concerned that an essential, if widely unexplored, topic basic to fundraising is missing. There’s plenty about analytics, monthly giving, how to do this and […]

Learn More February 13, 2014