Award Winning Blog - Agitator

If No One Came to Work Could the Movement Run Itself?

This tongue-in-cheek headline raises the question of just how effective progressive advocacy and social change organizations can be when a good part of their staff energy is focused on battling each other rather than advancing the group’s mission at this critical moment in history. This is particularly true when it comes to reproductive rights organizations […]

Learn More July 22, 2022

A Message Built of Concrete

Should your fundraising message be concrete and specific or abstract? Most would probably say the former and most would be correct. The better question is why? Why does being more concrete and specific with messaging versus generic and abstract work better? It isn’t enough that the answer to the first question (concrete or abstract?) seems clear […]

Learn More July 20, 2022

I Feel the Need, The Need for Speed

Come on, I had to do it. That was a coming of age period for me, formative years and all. Plus a line that corny has to be good. But now it’s back to our original, behavioral science fundraising channel. Here are three story attributes that matter to success. Volume is bad. Does your story […]

Learn More July 18, 2022

Should Charities Be More Commercial?

How many charities have a fee for service revenue line? Hospitals, lots of cultural, place-based charities, the entire public broadcasting world…more than you might think. Does having a commercial revenue line create conflict with service delivery to beneficiaries? Or how about community building? It may be hard to be inclusive if you make more profit […]

Learn More July 15, 2022

What if Donors Could Give More Now and Pay Later?

A huge bonus springing from the BBB’s Wise Giving Alliance’s Heart of Giving Podcast are the windows host Art Taylor opens onto the personalities and motivation of folks who do the work, provide the charitable services, and come up with innovations worth exploring in our sector. Such was last week’s podcast featuring Dominic Kalms, the […]

Learn More July 13, 2022

The Plague of Churn – Donors and Staff

Money isn’t everything. Direct cash outlays to the poor can make them psychologically worse off if those outlays are temporary. In an experiment poor people were given $2000, $500 and $0 (control group). Both groups getting the money were objectively better off having spent it on bills, food, clothing for kids, etc. But, both were […]

Learn More July 11, 2022