Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Repeat Donors Always Welcome

This week, I’m going to wear you down on the subject of retaining donors! It’s THAT important. Here’s more advice on how to hang on to them … this time from Bill Peck of Organizational Solutions, writing in Philanthropy Journal. Bill’s recommendations (amplified here): Send a timely thank you letter within five to seven business […]

Learn More April 13, 2011

How Many Donors Do You Retain?

The Agitator has been writing a lot lately about donor retention, especially basics like saying “Thank you” and getting that all important second gift. So here’s a quick one-question survey about retention of 1st time donors. The question is simple: What percentage of your nonprofit’s 1st time donors make a second gift? If you’re an […]

Learn More April 12, 2011

Welcome Advice

I mean just that … courtesy of Fundraising Success. From Craig DePole at Newport Creative Communications, here’s some very straightforward advice on how to welcome your new donors. In brief (if your nonprofit’s first year retention rate is less than 40%, I suggest you read the whole article): Make it timely. Make it personal … […]

Learn More April 11, 2011

Fire Them … Or Train Them

Yesterday Roger threatened to fire the direct response fundraising staffs at the top 83 charities in the US. Clearly, he was agitated! We got this comment from John Whitehead at Water Aid in the UK: “I don’t know if things are similar in the States, but here in the UK I can see a decline […]

Learn More April 8, 2011

Fire The Top 83 Direct Response Fundraisers?

Yesterday, Target Analytics published its Index of National Fundraising Performance for the 12 months ending December 31, 2010. Not a pretty picture. And frankly, if I were the CEO or a Board Member of one of the 83 big organizations included in this Index, I’d probably be looking for some new resumes to replace some […]

Learn More April 7, 2011

Students Use Online Advocacy

Harvard’s Institute of Politics has collected some interesting data on college-age and young adults and their online advocacy. As reported in ClickZ Marketing News … “Among 18- to 29-year-old Facebook users, 21 percent said they’ve used Facebook to advocate for a political position, 29 percent have liked an issue, and 24 percent have liked a […]

Learn More April 6, 2011