Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Quality Comes From Quantity But…

Author Ray Bradbury said, “Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed”. There’s at least three, fundraising nuanced takes on this. You’re running a quantity model business and have a set ratio of quantity to quality donors you bring in. This model fails for almost every charity save for the uber […]

Learn More February 1, 2023

Sell Me This Pen

To borrow from Boiler Room, “a sale is made on every solicitation you send. Either you sell the donor on why they should give or they sell themselves on why they shouldn’t.” The Hollywood, sales-genre movies are often fantastic and full of useful tidbits. Sell Me This Pen, famous in sales folklore and cinema, is […]

Learn More January 30, 2023

Are You Giving Your Donors the Trump Treatment?

For whatever unfathomable reason my brain somehow connected coverage of Donald Trump’s bizarre eulogy at a supporter’s funeral with some of the lousy behavior exhibited by some nonprofits in dealing with their donors. Let me explain. At a memorial service for Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, half of the rabidly vocal pro-Trump commentary duo of Diamond & […]

Learn More January 27, 2023

Should Your Fundraising Match a Chatbot?

Who doesn’t love a good chatbot? Version 1.0 of chatbot world was a lot like comparing Siri to Chat-GPT, it’s Artificial Stupid vs. Artificial Intelligence. But, modern day bots are increasingly more GPT-like, which means they’re more human like, more conversational, more adaptive and more helpful. Consider today’s off the shelf chatbot options allow you […]

Learn More January 25, 2023

Love or Hate AI as Writing Tool?

In 1959 a german computer scientist developed an automated text generator using Kafka’s novel, The Castle for source material. Harold Cohen, a painter, used mechanical devices attached to a computer to create versions of his original art, which he sold in galleries. This was 60 plus years ago. Using computers as writing or creative aids […]

Learn More January 23, 2023

Are You Defining Engagement Downward?

Aah Engagement, a euphemism if there ever was. An English word that once had meaning, twisted and contorted to its lowest common denominator of likes, clicks and superficial, mostly meaningless outcomes. Too many groups jump to the end and cobble together non-financial behaviors (click, like, attend, follow) and call it an “Engagement Score”. Facebook calls […]

Learn More January 20, 2023