Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Stay The Course Or Step Change?

Yes, there are some ‘uncontrollables’ that will influence your fundraising success in 2014 — consumers’ confidence about their economic well-being, major breaking events/tragedies (political or natural), and of course the extent to which you laid proper groundwork (or failed to) in 2013. Still, in no small part, your nonprofit’s fundraising performance in 2014 will be […]

Learn More January 6, 2013

Highs, Lows, Buzzwords, Likes

In case you missed it over the holidays, the Chronicle of Philanthropy published some interesting fundraising highlights of 2012 … 5 Nonprofit High Points in 2012 — of these, I’d go with setting up Center for Disaster Philanthropy 5 Nonprofit Low Points in 2012 — each of these a real downer, but one represents a […]

Learn More January 4, 2013

Assessing Your Audience for 2013

As you reflect on your ‘market’ for the coming year, perhaps you should be careful about overestimating. I know your donors are attentive to the big picture, well-informed, and serious-minded. But then there’s the real world, as suggested by the most common Celebrity and News searches (as indicated by the 100 million people who turned […]

Learn More January 3, 2013

Do You Really Want To Alienate Me?

Hey nonprofit that I’ve supported in the past … Do you really want to alienate me? Then send me one more year-end email appeal! One more … I dare you! Nothing turns me off about fundraising more than the year-end online hustle that makes most diet marketing look measured and sophisticated. Daily, then hourly appeals […]

Learn More January 2, 2013

How Big Is The Nonprofit World?

According to the Urban Institute’s Nonprofit Almanac 2012, this big (click image to enlarge) … And if you want a sense of its diversity, just go The Agitator website and watch the scroll (bottom left column) we maintain of our recent subscribers. Amazingly diverse. And hopefully all will advance their missions in meaningful ways in […]

Learn More December 31, 2012

Did You Make Them Feel Good?

Hopefully as 2012 ends, your year-end fundraising has gone gangbusters! One HUGE 3-day weekend left. If it hasn’t gone so well, ask yourself these questions … How well do you know your donor? Did you make them feel good? Sure, in retrospect, you might have tried this or that different tactic … maybe a 3x […]

Learn More December 28, 2012