Award Winning Blog - Agitator

High Net Worth Donors Are Normal

According to the Bank of America’s latest survey of high net worth giving (done in conjunction with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University), major gift donors are like the rest of us plebeians in one respect … They don’t like to be over-solicited and they don’t like to be asked for the wrong amount (38% […]

Learn More October 31, 2012

Never Too Old For Mobile

Awhile back we reported on America’s New Mobile Majority, noting that over 50% of US mobile subscriber now use smartphones. The post included extensive mobile use data from Pew Research. Additional data indicates that 36% of consumers read emails on mobile, rising to 55% among 18-34 year old; and 10% use mobile as their principal […]

Learn More October 30, 2012

What are those Facebook likes and Twitter followers worth?

Social media channels have not historically been the place where money changes hands. In other words, Facebook is less the open air marketplace (think eBay) and more the Tuesday night book club and Saturday morning soccer gathering. For proof, look no further than Facebook desperately, and unsuccessfully at the moment, trying to monetize 1 billion […]

Learn More October 29, 2012

Acquisition – Direct Mail: The Exquisite Corpse

For nearly 20 years prognosticators have prematurely heralded the death of direct mail. After all, they argue, “online” is far cheaper and faster, plus donor demographics are changing, so it’s only a matter of time before direct mail is dead and buried. Only trouble with these dire predictions is that they’re not supported by facts […]

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We’re In It For The Money

Frankly, I would have written the matter off as a tempest in a teapot, but this situation is grist for a good debate among Agitator readers. Here’s the situation. There’s a niche group of companies that use online petitions to generate acquisition leads for nonprofits. The email addresses of the petition signers are then sold […]

Learn More October 26, 2012

Words Are Precision Tools

Roger might have overwhelmed you with numbers and analysis in his recent two detailed posts on acquisition and lifetime value, here and here. I’ll grossly oversimplify what he established with the numbers. It boils down to embracing this mindset: Treat a first-time giver as a lead, not a donor. If you then deal with these […]

Learn More October 25, 2012