Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Higher Ed Giving Tanks

As noted in Philanthropy Journal, the Council for Aid to Education reports that charitable giving to colleges and universities declined by 12% in 2009, to $28 billion. This was the steepest decline ever recorded. Over the last ten years, higher ed giving has averaged 4% per year growth. Also at this link is a listing […]

Learn More February 23, 2010

2009 Digital Media Review

Here is the 2009 Digital Media Review from comScore, which specializes in measuring the digital world (registration required). All the factoids you need on who’s using what (in the U.S.) to put your digital efforts into perspective. A few things that struck me … Reflecting the overall economy, retail e-commerce, at $210 billion, was down […]

Learn More February 22, 2010

DMA Direct Mail Stats

Ethan Boldt at Inside Direct Mail reports these U.S. direct mail stats from the DMA’s new 2010 Statistical Fact Book: Direct mail accounts for 52% of all mail (over half of all mail has been direct mail since 2007). Households receive 24.7 pieces of mail per week (down from a high of 26.2 a few […]

Learn More February 19, 2010

Soup Shopping, With Emotion

How much research does your nonprofit undertake to inform your fundraising strategy and messaging? Probably too little. Either for lack of resources, or because you just don’t believe in it. Take a look at this Wall Street Journal article, The Emotional Quotient of Soup Shopping, if you want a taste of how far commercial marketers […]

Learn More February 18, 2010

Boomers: Bummed, Overcast, Sickly

The Boomer Project recently compiled some studies on the attitudes and outlook of the Boomer generation … you know, the ones you’re counting on for all that money in your fundraising plan. Unfortunately, the data suggest that Boomers aren’t in a very upbeat state of mind. The Boomer Project uses adjectives like bummed, sickly, overcast, […]

Learn More February 17, 2010

Verdict On Annual Reports

Lots of very constructive responses to our question of last week: Are Annual Reports Dinosaurs? And it looks like we have a hung jury! One group leans toward more timely and frequent donor communication, including in lieu of "saving it up" for the annual report. Another group says different strokes for different folks … so […]

Learn More February 15, 2010