Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Online Donations: Usability Testing

Many thanks to Abny Santicola at Fundraising Success mag for pointing us to the latest usability testing on nonprofit websites by design guru Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen is the best at this. His methodology is to observe in realtime how visitors actually use websites, read e-newsletters, etc. I wish there were a Nielsen of direct mail […]

Learn More June 17, 2009

Boomers Crash Social Net Party

Here’s a fun account from MediaPost of the phenom of Boomers joining the world of online social networking. As the article begins: "’Congratulations! Your parents just joined Facebook. Your life is officially over.’ Such is the greeting visitors receive upon entering the blog ‘Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook,’ which – as the name implies […]

Learn More June 16, 2009

Does Your Nonprofit Make Friends?

Last week, I raised the question of whether your donors relate to your organization as "friends" or merely "acquaintances?" The hypothesis being that donor loyalty requires building a "friend" relationship. I suggested a simple first step, like including photos of the signers of your letters and emails. So far, no one has dumped on the […]

Learn More June 15, 2009

How To Write Good

C’mon, you really wanted to correct that headline, didn’t ya? And it’s just that schoolmarm tendency in folks that makes for so much bad direct response fundraising copy. That’s the conclusion I draw from a fascinating dissertation by Frank C. Dickerson, Ph.D. as part of his doctoral studies at The Peter Drucker Management Center and […]

Learn More June 12, 2009

Total Giving Down; Online Up

According to Giving USA, total giving to US charities declined 5.7% in real terms in 2008 compared to 2007, the first decline in real terms since 1987. Total giving in 2008 amounted to $307.65 billion, with these components (all declines inflation-adjusted): Individuals — $229.3 billion, down 6.3% Foundations — $41.2 billion, down 0.8% Bequests — […]

Learn More June 11, 2009

Friend, Or Mere Acquaintance?

Our sister firm DonorTrends has just been in the field with a survey on donor loyalty for a major national nonprofit. This group has been around a few decades, long enough to develop some considerable brand awareness and loyalty. Here’s an interesting finding: Respondents are three times more likely (60% to 22%) to think of […]

Learn More June 10, 2009