Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Disaster Strikes!

And what do you do? Weird and damaging events can happen, even to happy-go-lucky nonprofits. As Seth Godin notes in this post, complaining about poor communications during a recent city-stopping three-inch rainfall plus tornado in NYC, some things just can't be predicted. But to paraphrase his advice: you can be really good at communicating with […]

Learn More August 14, 2007

Ideacide

Guy Kawasaki, original marketer of the Mac, is my favorite collector of thinking about innovation and innovators. In this post, he's relayed the “seven sins of solutions” as articulated by Matt May, author of The Elegant Solution. May seems to have coined the marvelous term “ideacide” to describe the process of killing innovative thinking. Here, […]

Learn More August 10, 2007

Prize For Funders?

Holden Karnofsky at The GiveWell Blog has been making a good case that foundations should release far more information about their outcomes. How poorly or brilliantly are their grants achieving the intended goals? And what can the rest of us — nonprofits and funders alike — learn from the vast experimentation that is occurring? What […]

Learn More August 9, 2007

More Lessons From Prez Campaigns

Sorry, The Agitator will keep coming back to this theme for at least sixteen months! There's much for nonprofits to learn from the prez candidates' use of technology in their campaigns. Here's the best assessment we've seen of what's happening and what's not, from Edward Cone writing in the somewhat obscure CIO Insight. Please read […]

Learn More August 8, 2007

Copywriting Checklist

Last week we talked about checklists, and asked for yours. Here's a checklist for writing copy — copy that seeks response — from Agitator reader Ellis Robinson, author of The Nonprofit Membership Toolkit. Some boxes to check: Use the word “you” in the first sentence or paragraph. Make sure there is a reason to respond […]

Learn More August 7, 2007

Do-Gooders Are Corruptible Too

Just look at a recent listing of articles from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Washington Post and the New York Times: Smithsonian Fires Executive Over Credit-Card Expenses Government Probes Earmarks for Marine Center Nonprofit Loan Group Will Scale Back Operations(after Washington Post report on “extravagent spending”) Struggling Arts Group Approved Big Bonus for President Harvard's Cutting […]

Learn More August 6, 2007