Award-Winning Blog


10 Dumbest Words Used by (Fundraising) Consultants

Integrate – unless something is being physically combined, steer clear.   Buzzword bingo aficionado’s can rest assured this word will show up in your next meeting. Illuminate – this word is used to ironically suggest the consultant will provide what he is incapable of – clarity. Solution – because “product” seems so simple or trite. Leverage – perhaps the most […]

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Danger Ahead?

Forbes recently ran this article — Gen X and Gen Y Wealth Stagnates. The article is based on a study by the Urban Institute which compares the wealth of various age cohorts as it stood in 1983 versus 2010. Forbes reports as follows: “While the net worth of those 47 and older is roughly double […]

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Roger Craver Quits!

Roger and I spent the Easter weekend in deep contemplation, reflecting over the state of humanity, the important things in life, and The Agitator too. And we had an epiphany. We realized that we’ve been dead wrong about too many things. We’ve led our readers astray. For example … Retention. We’ve harped and carped about […]

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In Praise Of The Extra X

What a wonderful, energetic difference that extra X chromosome makes in our world of fundraising. As our final post for March and as National Women’s History Month nears its end in the US, Tom and I want to pay tribute to the role women play in fundraising today. And, the role fundraising has played in […]

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Acquisition: The ‘Less Cost Is Best’ Fallacy

By now you’ve shown your CEO, CFO and Board the famous Dan Pallotta TED presentation — The way we think about charity is dead wrong. If you haven’t, you deserve a scolding. Here it is, and here’s why you should view it. I’m glad to see it has over 1 million views now … but […]

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Make Contact!

Here’s yet another study from the commercial world that delivers the refrain: Make contact with your customers! Yeah, the study was conducted by Harris Interactive for InContact, a vested interest provider of contact center software. But dismiss these findings, which I believe apply to donors, at your peril … More than a third (68%) of […]

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