Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Tell Us Your Vital Signs

Given the challenging economic environment as the books close on calendar 2008, The Agitator would like to take the pulse of fundraisers and share your collective sense of the fundraising outlook for nonprofits over the balance of the year. We have put together this brief eight-question Vital Signs survey to collect your perceptions and predictions.Whether […]

Learn More October 31, 2008

Research On Consumer Marketing Preferences

Here’s a white paper (must register to download) on marketing channel preferences from Ball State University’s Center for Media Design and ExactTarget, a email marketing company. They looked at six target segments and their preferences regarding media for receiving marketing messages. Biggest surprise was the continuing preference among younger consumers (age 18-34) for direct mail […]

Learn More October 30, 2008

I’m Buying Buyology

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a break — at least for a day — from the blogging blizzard (including here on The Agitator) on the woes of fundraising in a recession and the endless achievements of Obama’s online fundraising machine.So when I saw this review of Buyology: Truth and Lies About […]

Learn More October 29, 2008

Fundraising Manifesto

Here is a fundraising “manifesto” brought to our attention by marketing maven Seth Godin.Called In Defense of Raising Money, it’s written by Sasha Dichter, Director of Business Development for the Acumen Fund, one of the more innovative social investment vehicles — a nonprofit venture capital fund — supporting enterprises fighting poverty in the developing world.I’ll […]

Learn More October 28, 2008

Must-Read Report On Holiday Online Giving

Thanks to Convio and JupiterResearch, nonprofit fundraisers have new and valuable insight into the expected online giving of Americans in the upcoming holiday season.As we read the data, the news is good: Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!For this report prepared by Convio, Jupiter asked 175.6 million adult online users in the US about […]

Learn More October 27, 2008

AGITATOR WEEKEND: Fundraising for Nail Biters

The Agitator’s Week In Review. As news of economic woes continued again this week tension and quiet terror grew even more noticeable among some fundraisers. Tom and I have quite different views over just how worried we all should be. So, we talked it over and put up our first audio post on Monday along with […]

Learn More October 25, 2008