Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

I was planning on writing a post riffing off this great NY Times article — The Found Art of Thank-You Notes — in a hopeful attempt to turn you on to the joy of expressing appreciation. Even if, as a fundraiser mindful of your brand perception, you can’t express yourself on “weighty ecru Connor correspondence […]

Learn More April 22, 2014

What’s A Fundraiser Worth?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy sheds light on this question, publishing a report on salaries of about 430 fundraisers from about 280 nonprofits with $35 million plus in revenue. The Chronicle relied upon IRS 990 forms filed by nonprofits in 2011. Without a doubt, this report will stir up passionate conversations around water coolers throughout the […]

Learn More April 21, 2014

The Next America

I’ve barely cracked the binding on Paul Taylor’s new book, The Next America, and already I’m hugely impressed. The book is grounded in boatloads of well-organized data about America’s shifting demographics and the cultural and political attitudes of our various population segments, as well as their economic prospects, gleaned from the extensive studies of the […]

Learn More April 18, 2014

Strategy And Risk

Roger warned yesterday about the ‘S’ word — strategy, discussing what is strategy and what isn’t … as well as who is a strategist and who isn’t. The image that came to my mind was the Wizard of Oz, projecting dramatic but fake theatrics from behind the curtain. In response, Charlie Cadigan of National Geographic […]

Learn More April 17, 2014

Beware Of The ‘S’ Word!

Excuse me, but I just gotta get this out of my system. I am so fed up with reading and hearing from those who use the term ‘strategy’ without the slightest idea what it means. It’s a disease of dumbness and idiocy that has particularly infected the consulting community. Were it not that it’s a […]

Learn More April 16, 2014

Thinking ‘Lifetime’

Yesterday I talked about the simplest step your organization can take to increase the lifetime value of your donors — tighten up your acknowledgement process. If you didn’t check out this compelling data from Grizzard establishing that point, please do so. But then I got to thinking, how many Agitators readers might still not be […]

Learn More April 15, 2014