Award Winning Blog - Agitator

How Do You Find Out Why People Give?

For starters, don’t ask. Asking donors “why” tends to produce rationale or superficial answers. A slightly better approach is asking why a particular cause (not the charity itself) is important to them. This will likely result in describing experiences, which may indirectly shed light on the ‘why’. The danger here is relying on a researcher to […]

Learn More September 25, 2023

The World of Richard Viguerie. At 90 “Our work isn’t finished yet.”

“You see, in ideological causes people give money not to win friends, but to defeat enemies . You’d like to change human nature, but you can’t—people are more strongly motivated by negative issues than positive ones. When there are no negatives or enemies, the appeal isn’t strong.” For the past 58 years this […]

Learn More September 22, 2023

Trick or Treat Copywriting

The following ad reportedly appeared in the Atlanta Journal. “SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship. Ethnicity not important. I’m a very good looking girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will […]

Learn More September 20, 2023

Which Big Mac Ad Do You Prefer?

Old school Big Mac marketers would sell a Big Mac… By hiring an agency to come up with a clever, “emotional” ad. Like this one. This ad would be shown to the McDonald’s rewards customers in email and on social. It would be aimed at anyone on mobile doing a search for “fast food near […]

Learn More September 18, 2023

Is Your Writing Edited?

Nancy Gibbs, former editor in chief of Time magazine, often quipped, “every word has to earn its place in a sentence, every sentence has to earn its place in a paragraph, and every idea has to earn its place in a text.” And it turns out we’re not very good at deleting when we edit. One study […]

Learn More September 15, 2023

Is Your Charity Playing Soccer or Basketball?

In The Numbers Game the authors analyzed soccer teams and determined it’s a weak-link sport, the path to success comes not from investing more in top players but shoring up your weakest ones. Basketball is the opposite, a strong-link sport, you need a superstar or two to have any chance. Science is or should be a […]

Learn More September 13, 2023