Award Winning Blog - Agitator

We’re Flabbergasted

This post in Don't Tell The Donor really surprises us, since we generally find this guy quite insightful … hence his inclusion on our blogroll. Basically the post calls “total rubbish” the following comment by a writer for a local business publication: Today, nonprofits need to operate like a business. Budgeting funds is a must, […]

Learn More October 28, 2006

Email Heresy

Recently we blank”>posted on the thorny subject of whether email lobbying campaigns were actually getting their messages through to Congress. The focus of the posting was on the technical side of whether (or to what extent) such “generated” messages were filtered out in various ways by legislators' defensive systems. In addition, however, The Agitator expressed […]

Learn More October 27, 2006

Give Vilfredo Pareto More Respect

In 1906 Vilfredo Pareto made the observation that 80% of the property in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. With further embellishment, this morphed into the Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, which posits that for many phenomena, 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes. It's also called the law of […]

Learn More October 26, 2006

Two (Make That Three) Things That Kill Marketing Creativity

Marketing creativity is a favorite theme of Seth Godin's, and his comments here nail it. Still, to his two creativity killers, I'd add a third: Fearful, unimaginative bosses.

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Madonna Deserves A Raise

Madonna is being villified for seeking to adopt an orphaned Malawi child. Here, from the Chicago Tribune, is a typical article, which disparagingly concludes: “When the public tires of Madonna’s latest exploit and the media moves on to something else, little will have changed for Malawi and the million orphans she left behind.” To which […]

Learn More October 25, 2006

Pass The Dopamine, Please

In an article titled “The Joy of Giving,” The Economist reports on brain research that seeks to explain the mental processes involved in making donations. Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke used a standard technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging to map the brain activity that occurred when test subjects were […]

Learn More October 24, 2006