Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Is Your AI Strategy Your Spreadsheet Strategy With Better Hair?

Gurus and detailed lore plus an unshakable conviction that the way the world works can now be understood, and reshaped, by those who’ve mastered the new tool. You’ve seen the discourse. You know the feeling: real excitement, and a nagging suspicion that more than a few people are performing understanding rather than demonstrating it. AI? […]

Learn More April 1, 2026

A 37-Item Packing List, Ten-Toed Socks, and One Very Good Reason to Give

Ken Burnett — for those who’ve somehow missed the last 40 years of fundraising civilization — is walking 500 miles across Spain. Again. He did this five years ago for SOFII, the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration. He raised £21,000. He is now, by his own admission, “five years older and more than a […]

Learn More March 27, 2026

Zelensky Has Better Donor Data Than You Do

There’s a stack of direct mail somewhere in America right now — a #10 envelope with carrier teaser, a 4-page letter, a reply device, a return envelope — traveling toward a donor who gave $25 last August. The organization spent more producing it than they will ever see back. Nobody decided this. It just keeps […]

Learn More March 25, 2026

Early, Often… and Overrated: More on the Second Gift Myth

Solicitation frequency. Not exactly cocktail party conversation but conversation starter nevertheless. Here is a look at 3 organizations, 7 full years of giving, all reglious, and all mailing a lot, I mean a lot; 30-50 times a year, not a typo. To restate, much conventional wisdom rests on these two points Get the second gift […]

Learn More March 23, 2026

Your Second Gift Data Is Lying To You

There’s a finding that circulates enough in fundraising circles that it’s treated as established fact: donors who receive a second ask within 30 days of their first gift give again at much higher rates than those who wait five weeks or more. The implied takeaway is straightforward; ask again quickly, capture the momentum. Except the […]

Learn More March 20, 2026

When the Close Up Image Doesn’t Work

Hopeful or sad for your appeal? It sounds like a practical choice, which is probably why it sticks around. But it pushes into the wrong level of thinking by assuming emotion is a dial you adjust independently as single variable when instead, it’s more of a holistic, gut level reaction. How many appeals are you […]

Learn More March 18, 2026