Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Your Best-Conversion May Be Your Worst Acquisition

The easiest way to increase advocacy conversion is to remove most of the advocacy. Ask people whether they oppose animal cruelty, want children protected or think politicians should stop doing the obviously terrible thing described in the headline. They click “Add My Name,” and congratulations, another committed activist has joined the movement, or not. Agreeing […]

Learn More September 4, 2026

Be Innovative and Traditional?

The post title reminds me of the spoof video making fun of management consultancies with the edict by the client to make 3 lines that are simultaneously parallel and perpendicular and the obsequious senior consultants promising it. Being Innovative and Traditional in format, design and copy seems impossible. At least if we’re limiting ourselves to […]

Learn More September 2, 2026

Women are Special. Audit the Verbs.

Women are special. No shit, Sherlock. Let me rescue that lede before some earnest copywriter or designer buries it under a lavender color gradient, a stock photo of two beige hands clasped over a beige table, and a subject line that says “Together, We Rise.” Almost every fundraising appeal targeted to women that dies on […]

Learn More August 31, 2026

Repeat Giving Is an Outcome, Not a Habit

Your database knows a donor gave again but not whether she remembered why, responded automatically to the annual appeal, forgot about the monthly debit or was briefly unable to say no to a cheerful stranger in a branded vest. Your database is a security camera recording the behavior, not the motive. Volume Machine Fundraising (it’s […]

Learn More August 28, 2026

Twenty Years of Fundraising Experience or One Year Repeated 20x?

Would you rather take fundraising advice from a 28 yr old or 58? The older fundraiser probably gets the instinctive nod as 30 years in fundraising must have produced more knowledge than 8 yrs. But then come the qualifications like hiring the younger fundraiser to attract younger donors or operate whatever social platform appeared during […]

Learn More August 26, 2026

GOTV Works…Or Not

There was a field experiment using social pressure mailers that increased voter turnout by around 8 percentage points. That’s a massive lift. But averages, even big lift ones, can hide a lot. Nothing works the same with everybody. There aren’t universal “nudges” or other tactics that apply evenly to all people. To quote the late […]

Learn More August 24, 2026