Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Professional Development For Nonprofits

Just in case you overlooked, Philanthropy Journal has put together an excellent online special report on professional development for nonprofits. By one account, over 250 colleges and universities offer at least one course in nonprofit management, while 114 offer a concentration in the area. Many other programs are offered by professional organizations and specialized consultants. […]

Learn More June 4, 2007

Replacing Older Donors

As usual, Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog offers pointed advice when he tells nonprofit fundraisiers to stop wasting time prospecting for donors in the under-30 population. Focus instead, he says, on Boomers, loosely 40- to 60-year olders (more precisely, the 1946-64 birth date cohort), to replace your aging core donors. I think he's only […]

Learn More June 1, 2007

Top Challenges For Nonprofits

A new study from the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post Project identifies the following as the top “very significant” challenges for nonprofits, as indicated by responding organizations: Charitable fundraising (68% of organizations) Health benefit costs (58%) Government budget cuts (47%) Generating fee income (46%) Board recruitment (46%) Public understanding (41%) That fundraising is the top […]

Learn More May 31, 2007

Converting Online Subscribers Into Donors

In this Guest Agitator post, Karen Taggart, Director of Nonprofit Services at Care2, discusses the challenge of converting e-subscribers into donors. Says Karen: “It is no secret in direct mail that recency is key to successful fundraising. We all send appeals to donors who have just given and would never even consider prospecting to rented […]

Learn More May 30, 2007

Can An Atheist Be An Angel?

The answer is YES if you're Bob Wilson. Bob, along with Ted Turner, is one of my favorite philanthropists. Both are iconoclasts who never fail to surprise, even when one appreciates the underlying values that drive their giving. Bob, ranked 12th in 2006 on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of most-generous donors, just gave $22.5 […]

Learn More May 29, 2007

Colleges Fail At Online Marketing

Tell us it ain't so! According to Primary Research Group's 2007 Survey of College Marketing Programs, cited here, based upon interviews with 55 American colleges, it appears that college marketers are still at the stone tablet stage. As reported by interactive marketing consultant Hollis Thomases, PRG says that only 47% of colleges use online advertising […]

Learn More May 25, 2007