Award Winning Blog - Agitator

A Year-End Campaign I Like

Because I like stories. Because I like online video as a fundraising ‘closer’. Because I like hearing results, especially recounted by the people helped. For these reasons, I really like the current campaign of the American Red Cross. Actually, this is more than simply a year-end campaign (forgive my misleading title), although it has certainly […]

Learn More December 19, 2012

Get Off Your Butt Or Get Out

I only wish I could stop crying as I write this, my last post of the year. 27 dead from the Newtown shootings in Connecticut. Lives that will never progress, will never be part of our shared future. All a result of an unspeakable tragedy. Lives snuffed out by a lack of political will and […]

Learn More December 18, 2012

Acquisition: Innovation, Risk, Cowardice And Failure

We’re now about half way through this series on Acquisition. In the next half I’m about to weigh in with more thoughts on the innovative and the risky. Of course I’m mindful of the fact that risk and change make most folks uncomfortable and even sometimes hostile. Nowhere is this truer than in our sector, […]

Learn More December 17, 2012

Acquisition: Why ‘Best Practices’ Suck

The problem with most ‘best practices’ is that they lead to stealing. One organization copying another organization’s seemingly successful acquisition package simply leads to the next doing the same. And on and on. Tote bags change logos. Address labels change colors. Greeting cards filled with happiness, snow scenes and balloons proliferate. Problem is that copying […]

Learn More December 14, 2012

Could the Commercial Sector Really Be THIS Wrong?

Fact: when it comes to measuring marketing performance, the nonprofit and commercial sectors are much more similar than they are different. Yes, bottom line revenue goes to different places but the way in which nonprofits and commercial counterparts evaluate effectiveness is through similar metrics; acquisition of new donors/customers, retention of donors/customers, lifetime value, etc. Given […]

Learn More December 13, 2012

Don’t Eat The Poinsettia

I thought a holiday motif would be appropriate to remind us that in life there are plenty of myths we take for gospel. Some are true, some are not. As in: “Feed a cold, starve a fever.” [True] … “Don’t sit too close to the television you’ll hurt your eyes.” [Not true] … “Don’t swallow […]

Learn More