Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Pronouns Matter

I or we. You or us. He or she. Tiny words lumped into a category with articles and prepositions called functional words. They’re the opposite of ‘content’ words, the meaty stuff of nouns, verbs, adjectives. How can these tiny words matter? For starters, they’re social words. They help maintain conversation flow by indicated who or […]

Learn More April 21, 2023

Have You Been Selected?

Sometime last weekend, I think it was about 7:35 pm Saturday evening, as I worked my way through the week’s river of despairing news and its ever-flowing tributary of emails telling me why my immediate help –even $3 –would make the difference, my spirits suddenly lifted. Right there on that forlorn evening appeared an email […]

Learn More April 19, 2023

Do Donors Care About Your Solution or the Problem?

Would you be more willing to help the spotted owl if a solution offered to save 10% of the habitat or 50%? Randomized experiments show it doesn’t matter. Odd, right? What about swapping out the spotted owl for reptiles? Support goes down. But, swap in turtles for lizards and support goes back up. Your $.50 […]

Learn More April 17, 2023

Is Your Quality Data 3,008 or So 2000 and Late?

The Black-Eyed Peas may not be in my most played list but hey, a catchy, memorable lyric is a catchy, memorable lyric. Retention data is the rearview mirror view on quality, it’s 2000 and late. It’s a lagging indicator of quality. You don’t need more donors, you need more donors who stick around. But if […]

Learn More April 14, 2023

Do You Share Elon Musk’s Personality?

How you speak says volumes about who your disposition, your personality. In fact, the ‘origin’ story for the Big Five (OCEAN) started with the supposition that our individual differences are reflected in the words we use. So, it stands to reason that I can decipher your personality by analyzing the words you use in conversation. […]

Learn More April 12, 2023

“Because It Works, That’s Why.”

Perhaps it’s time to rethink the ‘because it works’ claim so often trotted out in defense of dubious, deceptive fundraising tactics; enter the political email season. Between April 1st and 19th of 2019 the presidential candidates (at the time) sent a combined 1,730 messages, more than 19 a day, to supporters. In defense or explanation […]

Learn More April 10, 2023