Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Avoiding The Dead Zone

Lift your head above the weeds for a few moments and think about this admonition from marketing maven Seth Godin. Talking about marketing, he says that what works is either purely "authentic" or super "slick." In between authentic and slick is The Dead Zone. In that zone, everything fails. Says Godin: "We crave handmade authenticity […]

Learn More August 21, 2008

Stephen Colbert, CFRE

Rejoice! The world of Fundraising Esoteria is now much richer and I just couldn’t wait to share the joy! The most recent issue of PS: Political Science and Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association carries great news for Democratic fundraisers and candidates: Democratic politicians receive a 40% increase in contributions in the […]

Learn More August 20, 2008

Greener Direct Mail

Earlier this month we published an article on how to lessen the environmental impact of direct mail programs. We invited further suggestions from fundraisers. Fundraising agency Mal Warwick Associates pointed us to their firm’s environmental practices statement, which describes the steps the company takes in its own business operations, as well as the steps it […]

Learn More August 19, 2008

Which Ads Do You Respond To?

Mediamark Research has come up with this study segmenting American consumers according to which media they respond to. Your possibilities, together with the US profile, are: Emerging media (9%) — mobile, product placement On the road (12% — billboards, buses, taxis Mass media (17%) — TV, radio, the internet On paper (17%) — newspapers, magazines […]

Learn More August 18, 2008

Challenge To Agitator Readers

Attention all you fundraisers out there! We’re looking for some savvy folks who have "solved" any of the key challenges — or should we say opportunities — we see presently out there in the nonprofit fundraising world. Here are the challenges: 1. You have improved you first year renewal rate in the last twelve months […]

Learn More August 15, 2008

Resources Required To Social Network

Want to give your nonprofit an presence on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc, etc, etc? Just find yourself a nerdy young intern? No way, says nonprofit marketing consultant Michael Puican in this article from the Philanthropy Journal. Here’s what he says you need, human resource-wise, if you’re serious … Two hours a day (10 hours […]

Learn More August 14, 2008