Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Direct Mail Hanging In

The Direct Marketing Association notes in its recently released 2012 Response Rate Report that direct mail response rates have dropped nearly 25% over the past nine years. Even so, direct mail pulls a better overall response than digital channels. The report also says that: Cost per order or lead for acquisition campaigns were roughly equivalent […]

Learn More July 26, 2012

Flat Earth Fundraising: Wasting Time By Exalting The Trivial

Within hours of our call for advice on content for The Agitators’ upcoming session at the 2012 Bridge Conference we received a generous and thoughtful outpouring of suggestions from readers. Thank you. One message in particular–from a clearly bright and equally frustrated fundraiser– got me thinking about why the “Winds of Change”, the theme of […]

Learn More July 25, 2012

Out-Execute Or Out-Strategize?

Seth Godin is making an important point about strategy in this post — Strategy matters more than ever — and that’s what he wants you to focus on. However, I want you fundraisers to focus on his first two sentences … “When everyone is playing the same game, your execution is critical. Your store is […]

Learn More July 24, 2012

Please Help Us Prepare

Roger and I are scheduled to present to the 2012 Bridge Conference coming up in Washington DC on August 7-9. The Conference is sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington and the DC Metro Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. We hope you’ll be one of the 1500 or so fundraisers who attend. […]

Learn More July 23, 2012

The Sunny Side Of Mortality

It’s a summer Friday for most of our readers. Happy to share this lighthearted essay — and bit of advice — from Lisa Sargent, fundraising copywriter and donor communications specialist … The Sunny Side of Mortality It happened in June. My husband came home and announced he was going to participate in a motorcycle ride […]

Learn More July 20, 2012

Would You Hold An Umbrella for Your Donors?

There was a great post on the Harvard Business Review Blog recently that caught my eye called “Earn Customer Loyalty Without Losing Your Shirt” which talks about a TD Bank loyalty strategy they refer to as the “1 to Say Yes, 2 to Say No” Rule. In a nutshell, the strategy promotes a culture driven […]

Learn More July 19, 2012