Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Your Charity Tote Bag Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore

Just imagine the panic among some of our colleagues if that dockworkers’ strike hadn’t been put on hold last Friday. Hundreds of fundraisers and dozens of production houses would be panicking—maybe worse—facing the grim reality of millions and millions of tote bags, address labels, calendars, and seasick stuffed bears bobbing offshore, unable to land. No […]

Learn More October 7, 2024

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes

I’m surprised when the online donation form companies give me a deer in the headlights look when I ask whether they do user experience research. I should stop being surprised as this has happened many times. I’m a slow learner. The charity sector average conversion rate of human beings on donate forms is 12%. That’s […]

Learn More October 4, 2024

Vote for Al Smith and Make Your Wet Dreams Come True

I promise I’ll tie in the post title and it’s not (merely) clickbait but indulge me for a moment. Distinctive Brand Assets sounds like one of those esoteric, say nothing concepts dreamed up either by academics or brand charlatans. That was my first reaction anyway. Distinctive assets are non-name identifiers like colors, taglines, characters or […]

Learn More October 2, 2024

Peloton Fundraising

Many lament comparisons between the nonprofit and commercial sector. I’m of the view the two are more similar than different but don’t take my word for it, just ask Peloton. This is from a WSJ article on the company with my headline takeaways. One size fits all is bad. Matching message to different needs is […]

Learn More September 30, 2024

Engagement Scores: The Empty Calories of Fundraising/Marketing

Click. Like. Follow. Attend. Or is it attend, follow, click, like? Non-financial behavior may be useful but there are lots of weak-tea ideas being trotted out under the banner of Engagement. Two Engagement notions in particular should be relegated to the dung pile where engagement hustlers look for ponies. Bogus Idea #1 1.Engagement is a set […]

Learn More September 27, 2024

Survivor: Society Edition

Imagine a reality TV show where the contestants aren’t competing for food or fire, but something more complex: how to split people into groups to minimize conflict within and maximize tension between them. The host explains the rules: “Your challenge is to create islands of harmony, but with enough contrast to make sure the rivalry […]

Learn More September 25, 2024