Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Bacon & Eggs & Fundraising

Understanding and acting on the difference between mere donor ‘involvement’ and actual donor ‘commitment’ is worth literally millions to the nonprofit sector. That’s why this morning, The Agitator and SOFII are simultaneously announcing a free webinar “of some importance”, as Ken Burnett, Managing Trustee of SOFII puts it. Since The Agitator isn’t given to that […]

Learn More August 2, 2012

Fill In The Blanks

In this recent post, The theater of the mind, Seth Godin advises marketers: “The most effective marketing story isn’t the one you tell to someone in your audience, it’s the one the person tells himself.” In Godin’s view good marketing opens the door to the prospect having a conversation with himself. He concludes: “Too often, […]

Learn More August 1, 2012

Can You Use This ‘Found’ Time?

Stripped to the basics, fundraisers need to squeeze their messages into the smaller and smaller bits of time prospects have at their disposal to ponder anything. So I was struck by this factoid in a NY Times article about the future of Time Inc’s magazines: the average smartphone user spends 1.4 hours a day waiting […]

Learn More July 31, 2012

Simplicity Marketing

The mantra on advertising’s Madison Avenue these days is ‘simple’. This NY Times article headlines the point: Paring Down Marketing Messages to a Few Simple Basics. Columnist Stuart Elliott says marketers are reacting to three trends: “how busy life today seems, the growing complexity of technology and the increasingly complicated economic picture. That has encouraged […]

Learn More July 30, 2012

Oh, And While You’re At It

For all you one-armed paperhangers toiling away in (especially) smaller nonprofits, once again, Scott Adams hits a nerve. We might add another frame, with the caption … “Oh, and while you’re at it, could you also redesign our website and bring in a few bequests?” Tom

Learn More July 27, 2012

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