Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Are We Completely Wrong?

Donor-Central asks: Are we completely wrong? Posing the possibility that donors don’t want more of a relationship with their charities … in fact, they want less. And if that’s right, says Donor-Central, then the traditional direct response model — acquire as cheaply as possible and then cultivate like hell — is breaking down. They cite […]

Learn More August 10, 2011

Learn From The Newbies

Roger, old-timer that he is, and I (and many of our ‘senior’ commentators, I might add) are always rattling on about the ‘eternal verities’ of fundraising. The well-established ‘truths’ in all aspects of fundraising — from technique to human nature — that prove out over and over, and endure. The truths we worry too few […]

Learn More August 9, 2011

It’s A Joke!

I swear … it’s a joke! Hey, Roger and I are working. Tom P.S. Go ahead, take the rest of the week off.

Learn More August 8, 2011

More Than A Fundraising Dating Service

With her usual style, grace and sense of humor Margaret Battistelli Gardner, the Editor-in-Chief of Fundraising Success helpfully added to the growing chorus of concern over donor commitment and donor relationship management. Margaret correctly notes “That lazy, ineffectual approach of talking at donors is so over that we need a new word for how over […]

Learn More August 5, 2011

Stove Man – Compelling Fundraising Video

Agitator readers know I champion online video as a key part of the fundraising kit. Here’s why. Look at this video series — Stove Man — from The Paradigm Project. The mission here is getting villagers in Africa to use very basic woodburning stoves instead of open fires to cook in their huts. Huge health […]

Learn More August 4, 2011

Social Web Elitism

David Sirota, writing in Salon.com, claims that the social net arena is dominated by well-educated elites, skewing and limiting the kind of political and issue debate that occurs. Drawing from a study by Jen Schradie reviewing Pew Internet Research data, he notes that education level is by far the most significant predictor of participation with […]

Learn More August 3, 2011