Award Winning Blog - Agitator

But Will It Make You Happy?

Last week, I wrote about the state of mind of today’s consumer as reported by Business Week in The New Abnormal, and why fundraisers should study basic consumer research. As The New Abnormal said: “Americans are broke and depressed — and also swilling $3 lattes and waiting in lines for iPhones. Welcome to the schizophrenic […]

Learn More August 9, 2010

What’s Wrong With This Online Appeal?

See full email appeal here Nothing is wrong, as best I can tell. Personalized to “Tom” The appeal has urgency … delivered by the message itself and the “progress bar” showing amount raised to date against the campaign deadline. It’s clear what efforts my donation will support (as is the experience behind it). There are […]

Learn More August 6, 2010

What’s Working In Fundraising Today?

Our always-thoughtful fundraising colleague, Lisa Sargent, recently interviewed a dozen plus nonprofit execs re the fundraising issues they’re facing today. She publishes her observations in this report, What’s Working in Donor Fundraising and Development Today? It’s definitely worth a read. These execs, at nonprofits ranging from $2 million to $2 billion in annual revenue, talk […]

Learn More August 5, 2010

The New Abnormal

In case you missed it, BusinessWeek just ran a terrific article, The New Abnormal, on the current state of consumer spending and psychology. The teaser sub-head says it all: “Americans are broke and depressed — and also swilling $3 lattes and waiting in lines for iPhones. Welcome to the schizophrenic economy.” It’s a marvelous article, […]

Learn More August 4, 2010

Know Their Worldview

Marketing maven Seth Godin recently published his “post-industrial” version of the “A is for Apple” alphabet. In his alphabet, “W” is for “Worldview.” Here’s what he says: “I first encountered this term via George Lakoff. Your worldview is the set of expectations and biases you bring to a situation before any new data appears. Some […]

Learn More August 3, 2010

Roger Tackles The “Mid-Level” Donor

The “mid-level” donor is that species in the $500-$5,000 per year giving range. You know, the ones who fall through the cracks in many fundraising programs … taking heaps of potential contributions with them. This Thursday (August 5) at 2pm ET Roger Craver will be leading a free DonorTrends webinar focused on building and sustaining […]

Learn More August 2, 2010