Award Winning Blog - Agitator

I Love You … I Love You Not …

When it comes to the recipe for lasting, committed relationships, there’s no ingredient as important as consistency. Whether it’s your best friend, your spouse, partner, favorite restaurant, toothpaste or razor blade, I’ll bet that consistency is a main thread that runs through all these relationships. Your best friend or partner didn’t get to be ‘best’ […]

Learn More July 25, 2013

How To Talk About Fundraising Costs

Like it or not, far too many folks judge a charity by its cost of fundraising and ‘overhead’. From regulators to the media, from charity watchdogs to far too many nonprofit boards — and even some fundraisers themselves — the false metric of ‘cost of fundraising’ has created a big mess of misunderstanding. Fortunately, the […]

Learn More July 24, 2013

The First Gift Was An Accident

How many lists have you seen giving rules you should follow to retain a donor? I hope you collect them all, because retaining a donor is the most important task in fundraising. Even more important than acquiring the donor in the first place (I hope a few readers go head-to-head with me on that proposition). […]

Learn More July 23, 2013

With A 9-Person Social Media Team, They Better Get It Right!

Would you associate AARP, the voice of America’s 50+ population, with adroit use of social media? If not, think again. AARP has some 80 Facebook pages with over a million fans, an active presence on YouTube and Twitter, and a “toehold” in about 15 other online platforms. Of course, if you have a nine-person team […]

Learn More July 22, 2013

What’s Missing On Your Website?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy just published this great article, 75% of Young Donors Turned Off by Out-of-Date Web Sites, describing what motivates people in their 20s and 30s to donate, and what their giving preferences are. A heap of stats, in the report — the 2013 Millenial Impact Report — sponsored by the Case Foundation […]

Learn More July 19, 2013

Stop Trying To Beat The Control

Direct mail fundraisers who use ‘donor fatigue’ as an excuse for frequently changing acquisition packages are in the charlatan business. Same for fundraisers who attempt to hook or trick the donor — with silly teaser copy, oversized outer envelopes, omitting the organization’s logo. They’re charlatans too. So says Kevin Schulman, our provocative pal over at […]

Learn More July 18, 2013