Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Fundraising Has an Emotion Problem. It’s Not the One You Think.

Fundraising’s relationship with emotion is confused in a very specific way. Everyone agrees emotion matters, but the sector keeps treating emotion as if it were the mechanism rather than the medium. Feel something and people will act, lead with the heart and the money will follow. That framing has produced a lot of copy that […]

Learn More January 7, 2026

Stop Saying “Deliverability.” Start Worrying About “See-Ability”.

For years, our sector acted like email was a clear hallway: hit “send,” it lands, it gets opened, it earns its keep. But today it’s really fog. Nonprofits still talk about deliverability like it’s 2009: “Did it send?” “Did it bounce?” “Did it technically arrive?” But deliverability isn’t the problem. See-ability is: Did a real […]

Learn More January 5, 2026

New Year’s Week Editorial Note

This week’s post is brought to you by an AI-generated image and a calendar technicality. Dec 29 is Kevin’s birthday, which is an extremely convenient excuse for not publishing again. Yes, this is the same Kevin who, as a child, routinely got jobbed with “two-fer” Christmas and birthday – one gift, one card, two obligations […]

Learn More December 29, 2025

Christmas Week Editorial Note

This week’s post is brought to you by an AI-generated image, because even pretending to be thoughtful felt like too much effort. If you’re disappointed, you should get in line with our children and spouses… Please know we briefly considered a “Best Of” roundup, then remembered we have access to the reader stats and watch […]

Learn More December 22, 2025

Why “Good Messaging” Keeps Underperforming

Jack Trout, a famous ad guy and thinker, famously said: “If your assignment is to change people’s minds, don’t accept the assignment.” He wasn’t being cynical, just precise about where effort is usually wasted. A large randomized experiment on TV advertising and social issues makes his point painfully clear. The study exposed 31,404 voters to […]

Learn More December 19, 2025

Kill Channels. Long Live Channels

Defining donors by channel is a bit like defining me by whether Amazon, USPS, UPS or Fed-Ex delivers my packages. It’s accurate and objective but I rarely make that choice and it’s inconsequential to why I bought what I bought. The channel I give in is often a function of exposure and where I happened […]

Learn More December 17, 2025

Award-Winning Blog

Fundraising Has an Emotion Problem. It’s Not the One You Think.