Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Online Fundraising Mistakes

Fundraising Success just ran this article, 3 Common Online Fundraising Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them), featuring the views of Thomas Gensemer at Blue State Digital. As Gensemer sees it, the three mistakes are: Treat it like direct mail Focus too much on control Focus too much on asking for money I’m struck most by […]

Learn More October 13, 2010

Creativity Killers

I’ve read heaps of academic literature and pop psychology on “creativity” and where it comes from, whether it can be nurtured, what other traits are associated with it, etc. But here is one of the most concise and useful treatments I’ve seen regarding the blockages that can impede the creativity, at whatever level, of any […]

Learn More October 12, 2010

Best Social Media Campaigns

It’s a “no heavy lifting” Monday. Just a post to enjoy. Forbes asked three “digital experts” — all NYC digital agency types — to pick the twenty best ever social media campaigns. Two of the twenty had charity tie-ins (asterisked below). How many of these registered on you (before “refreshing yourself by visiting the link)? […]

Learn More October 11, 2010

Email And Donor Relationships

We all know email as the workhorse of online fundraising. But what about email as a relationship and loyalty building tool? Writing in Email Insider, Loren McDonald at Silverpop, an online marketing agency, offers some interesting examples of commercial email approaches that are not aimed directly at sales, although in some examples that objective clearly […]

Learn More October 8, 2010

Best Fundraising Website – III

So I grumped about readers not offering their comments on my choice for best fundraising website, after I nominated Charity:Water. And readers responded … some seconding Charity:Water, some offering improvements to that site, and some recommending other sites. Terrific! Each of you responders deserves an Agitator raise! Now, I know that you’re not going to […]

Learn More October 7, 2010

Revolution Won’t Be Tweeted

In a New Yorker article titled Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted, the always provocative Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point, Blink, etc) takes on social media. In a nutshell, Gladwell argues that social media merely enable a sort of faux activism … not the “real thing” of social transformation, a la the sit-ins […]

Learn More October 6, 2010