Award Winning Blog - Agitator

What Your Story Must Tell

You’ve probably heard a zillion times by now that the best marketing communications involve telling stories. Stories that define your brand. Stories that your customers/donors can readily absorb and respond to emotionally. Stories penetrate. So, are you telling stories? And how effectively? Here’s a branding creative, Chad Cipoletti, writing on the subject, Three Questions Every […]

Learn More May 16, 2014

Top Fundraising Fallacies

Building on Drayton Bird’s blog, Five shocking lessons from a lifetime in marketing, Jeff Brooks added some fundraising spin of his own with 5 things you wish you already knew. Jeff inspired me to think more specifically about basic marketing mistakes fundraisers make. Here is my first pass at a list of ‘Top Fundraising Fallacies’ […]

Learn More May 15, 2014

Petition Signer To Donor

Demonstrating what should be a staple in your acquisition toolkit, here’s a brief ‘petition-to-donor’ case study from Care2, involving the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). Very straightforward. AWF’s petition to stop illegal wildlife poaching was promoted across the Care2 online network. In two weeks, the petitions attracted 29,000 signers, each furnishing online and mail contact info. […]

Learn More May 14, 2014

The Investment Paradox – Barriers To Growth, Part 2

There’s no question that the shortage of investment funds for fundraising is perceived as a principal barrier to growth. That sentiment was voiced by many attending the DMANF Leadership Summit last week, and it’s certainly a reason offered in a lot of the comments and email from Agitator readers. The solution to this problem may […]

Learn More May 12, 2014

Let’s Hear It For Ugly

Our pal Jeff Brooks just wrote a post on ugly. Jeff loves ugly and he disses a poor donor prospect who tweeted that he had refused to respond to an email appeal because it was poorly designed. Here’s how Jeff defends ugly: “That’s the way fundraising goes: Ugly works. Tacky works. Corny, embarrassing, and messy […]

Learn More May 9, 2014