Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Prez Campaigns Flock to New Media

Awhile back we urged nonprofit fundraisers and communicators to pay attention and learn from the online strategies of the presidential candidates. According to an estimate cited in the Wall Street Journal, political spending on online ads and website development for the 2008 cycle might reach $80 million, up from $29 million in the 2004 cycle […]

Learn More February 24, 2007

Your Direct Mail Letter Is A Person

In yet another wonderful piece, “What Orson Welles Can Teach Us About Direct Marketing,” Denny Hatch talks almost wistfully about the intimate power of the (well-crafted) direct mail letter. He quotes at length from freelancer Malcolm Decker. Here's a passage for every direct mail fundraiser to remember … “The Direct Mail LetterWith the CAN-SPAM Act […]

Learn More February 23, 2007

Warning: YouTube Could Bite You

More and more nonprofits are experimenting with online video, often simply by encouraging supporters to produce home-made testimonials or “why I'm concerned” videos. If your strategy is to place “best” or suitable videos on your own website after staff review, then of course editorial “compatibility” isn't an issue. But at the same time, this approach […]

Learn More February 22, 2007

Old Codgers Online

Meet Jim Hannah, age 72, and Don Deitch, age 75. Both spend a lot of time online doing sophisticated stuff. According to Larry Dobrow writing in The Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising (OMMA), these guys shatter the stereotype of “seniors” being web adverse. Yet online marketers are still writing off the oldsters. Dobrow's […]

Learn More February 21, 2007

LCV and Defenders “Exchange” E-mail Lists?

The coal for the furnace of direct mail fundraising has been list rentals and exchanges. A somewhat incestuous process where Sierra Club rents from NRDC who rents from Environmental Defense who rents from Sierra Club and around and around. Always with the assumption (desperate hope?) that someone, somewhere must be adding new names/donors into the […]

Learn More February 19, 2007

A Cause To Die For

The Agitator regularly scans the search engines to bring our readers the absolutely hottest trends and news in fundraising and nonprofit marketing. So we regularly filter out the important, but regular, stuff (notice we're not giving you links for these) … Family launches fundraising benefit for burgled blind man Cambridge University nears billion pound fundraising […]

Learn More February 18, 2007