Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Fundraisers … Beware Of Vanity Metrics

If you truly believe that fundraising is mostly art’, not ‘science’, then stop reading. Chances are you’re going to neither understand nor care which metrics matter in fundraising. It’s fashionable these days for many nonprofit fundraisers and their consultants to claim they’re ‘data-driven. Problem is, most focus on the ‘data’ part of the slogan, but […]

Learn More July 11, 2013

Giving For Now … Or For The Future?

I’m heartened to see the Chronicle of Philanthropy giving ample column inches to the issue of fundraising integrity, with these excellent opinion pieces by Jeff Schreifels and Mark Rosenman. Jeff’s piece, About High Fundraising Costs: It’s Complicated, makes this argument: “It’s time to make sure everyone understands that direct marketing is about the long run, […]

Learn More July 10, 2013

Thoughts On Draining The Swamp – Part 1

When it comes to cleaning up fundraising corruption and just bad stuff in our sector it’s clear that the regulators don’t have the resources and some of our trade associations have been too quiet, while others just don’t have the balls. So what should we as individuals or organizations do, if anything? Frankly, the bad […]

Learn More July 9, 2013

The Wall Has Arrived

Although you can read this post in its entirety (we wouldn’t want you to miss this announcement), as of today all other content on The Agitator, present and to come, will be behind The Wall … as in, our paywall. Starting tomorrow, the daily Agitator post you receive in your email via Feedblitz will be […]

Learn More July 8, 2013

Fine!

Our US readers are playing the next few days, taking advantage of a long Independence Day weekend. Many seeking to recover from insane workloads, fatigue and depression … However, Roger and I aren’t playing. We’re angsting over Monday’s launch of The Wall. Our tech advisers tell us to stay calm … “It’s fine. Ready to […]

Learn More July 4, 2013

We Cannot Fundraise Alone

Hopefully The Agitator has stirred the pot constructively with some of our recent rants (here and here) about fundraising atrocities, as they are found in the US. Alan Clayton at the UK’s Clayton Burnett takes the conversation further, with these remarks. While UK-centric here and there, it seems to me he’s right on target. Fundraising […]

Learn More July 3, 2013