Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Who Owns Your Nonprofit?

Todd Cohen at Philanthropy Journal fittingly nails the “sleepwalking” Smithsonian board in this post for its dereliction of duty in letting Larry Small run amok as former CEO of the place. As he puts it, that board was MIA. He warns: “Unless they start acting as responsible stewards of the resources invested in advancing their […]

Learn More June 28, 2007

Jeff, You Boob!

I read Jeff Brooks' Donor Power Blog every day. His creative insights are terrific. He really gets the relationship aspect of fundraising. But occasionally Jeff gets it REALLY WRONG, as with his breathless advice the other day that we should all rush off to use the Headline Analyzer to punch up our headlines. Don't you […]

Learn More June 27, 2007

Voyeurgasm And Other Trends

It's Monday … time for some mind stretches to get yourself “brain on” for the week ahead. Successful nonprofit marketers need to be sharp trend spotters … or at least avid trend watchers. Old fossils that we are, we at The Agitator have just discovered trend spotter Michael Tchong at Ubercool, who shares some stimulating […]

Learn More June 25, 2007

New Media Campaigning … Issues Or Boobs?

The contribution of new media to the quality of political discourse is vastly over-rated. I just got an urgent email from David Plouffe, Barack Obama's campaign manager. [There's the first problem … like I care about the campaign manager! You might as well send me a message from the campaign mascot.] What's it about? Obama's […]

Learn More June 22, 2007

Fundraiser! Are You A Fraud, Or Just A Fool?

Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog just did a post that spiked my blood pressure. He — correctly — took to task a report that, over a one year period, UK nonprofits earned merely 39 cents in donations for each $1 they spent on direct mail (and 44 cents for each $1 spent on all […]

Learn More June 21, 2007

Credit Cards Are Your Friends

Here's a pithy post on continuity giving from consultant Jim Killion, courtesy of DMA's The Integrator. Talking about the $$ power of monthly giving, Jim notes that credit card giving is the key to success, and suggests three tactics for maximizing your fundraising return: Tailored reporting — no auto-responder thank you's for these folks Targeted […]

Learn More June 20, 2007