Award Winning Blog - Agitator

The Fundraising Long View

Much will be written about the fundraising and communication tactics of the winning Obama campaign and how they apply (or don’t) to nonprofit fundraising (or at least cause fundraising). But it’s the nation’s demographic trends — reported here by Pew Research — that most strike me in terms of impact on future fundraising strategies. And […]

Learn More November 8, 2012

So, How Did They Get Their Money?

OK, it’s over. Time in the US for fundraisers to get back to work. With the election over, ‘all’ you need to compete with now is disaster aftermath and (if you’re an online fundraiser) the unrelenting torrent of retail e-marketing (already underway) that marks the Christmas season and grows each year. But before moving on, […]

Learn More November 7, 2012

Acquisition: Predictive Analytics And The Presidency

History’s most expensive acquisition effort – the $2 billion campaign for the US Presidency – comes to an end today. Hopefully by late tonight, or at least in the next few days, we’ll know which voter acquisition campaign was the most successful. Apart from our personal interests in today’s outcomes, we fundraisers should pay particular […]

Learn More November 6, 2012

Disaster Fundraising: Hurricane Sandy The Perfect Storm

Here’s a quick summary of actions, responses, questions, advice and, perhaps most importantly, the ‘unknowns’ concerning Hurricane Sandy and fundraising. Every fundraiser is affected. Doesn’t matter whether your organization is in disaster relief or not, or where it’s located. This horrific tragedy comes right after a hard-fought political fundraising season, right before the all-important year-end […]

Learn More November 5, 2012

Who Are The Nonvoters?

As we head into the US presidential choice, and candidates zero in on the final thousands of likely, but undecided, voters in America, the non-story is about those who are not likely to vote. This report from Pew Research looks at the nonvoters, who in 2008 were 43% of the voting age population. Here’s the […]

Learn More November 2, 2012

Acquisition: Using The Web To Boost Postal Mail Prospecting

How can you use online advertising to reinforce traditional direct mail campaigns and boost returns? Until recently, despite many noble efforts, the answer was almost always, “You can’t and you shouldn’t ‘cause it just doesn’t work. And the reason was/is that most online advertising models — whether based on contextual or keyword search or behavioral […]

Learn More November 1, 2012