Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Results From Agitator Survey

Today we are huddled in Washington, DC cogitating over how to improve The Agitator. It's our way of celebrating National Philanthropy Day in the US (in case you missed the parades). Meantime, we'd like to share the results of our recent Agitator reader survey, which will be guiding our direction. As of this writing, 154 […]

Learn More November 14, 2007

The Right Stuff

Two recent crises in the non-profit world –hemispheres apart both in nature and geography — strike me as stellar examples of 'best practices' when it comes to quickly, effectively and transparently managing critcal situations in the world of instant information and communications. On October 31st a Cape Town, South Africa, newspaper reported allegations of abuse […]

Learn More November 13, 2007

Modest Monday

The New York Times' annual, must-read, Special Section on Giving appears in today's print editions and online. Go out and buy a copy. It's jam packed with a range of goodies you need to know about in your daily work. Of course, we're partial to the piece titled “In the Fund-Raising Game, Blogs Cut Both […]

Learn More November 12, 2007

Want Response? Tell A Story

How many times have you heard it? The best way to get attention and communicate your message is to tell a story. Imbed your brand, your key fact, your call-to-action in a story and you will be taking advantage of the emotional processing that governs and adds significance to all information processing that humans do. […]

Learn More November 9, 2007

The $90,425 Direct Mail Donor

In his November newsletter, direct mail maven Mal Warwick tells this story. A donor makes a first gift of $5 in response to an advocacy group in 1984. Then makes 25 more gifts over the next 22 years, totaling $425. Then makes a bequest of $90,000 in 2007! Many — maybe most — major charities […]

Learn More November 8, 2007

Ethnic Marketing — Focus On Niche or Need?

Nonprofits — unless specifically focused on servicing or mobilizing a particular ethnic population — increasingly must communicate with an ethnically diverse audience. And a real trap when marketers and communicators begin to plan how to reach this diverse audience — especially when all the planners are the same color — is to break it down […]

Learn More November 7, 2007