Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Weekly Quiz #4

Once again, the Pew research engine has released a hugely important study on American attitudes. This time on the mix of religion and politics, from the Pew Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. We scarcely know where to begin in commenting on the importance of […]

Learn More September 2, 2006

And The Angels Fight

Quietly, but persistently, competition among the three major recipients of planned gifts private family foundations, community foundations, and commerical donor advised funds is heating up. The reason? Money, of course. Or to be more precise, the hundreds of billions of $$$ in capital assests which in turn yield hundreds of millions in investment […]

Learn More September 1, 2006

Why the Smorgasbord?

If you’ve browsed The Agitator, you might be puzzled by its breadth of topics — blogging, online fundraising, generational issues, direct mail, Latino media, branding, podcasting, planned giving, online videos, relationship marketing, social networking, environmentalism, major donors, video games, integrated marketing and more. Are we confused? Unfocused? No. We think we are reflecting the rapidly […]

Learn More August 31, 2006

7 Rules for Effective Landing Pages

By now, all of us are using e-mail messages with calls-to-action to lure our supporters into making donations, contacting public officials, volunteering and so forth. Usually your “ask” is closed on a web page intended to reinforce your action message. Here is a nice set of tips, courtesy of consultant Jeanne Jennings, for making sure […]

Learn More

Happy Losers

Here is a short essay by blogger Max Kalehoff, backed by some serious psychology and anthropology, dealing with the sales mentality. It's relevant to anyone whose job entails selling a cause or organization. I had mixed reactions. What I liked was the author's fundamental nudge to “celebrate struggle” and risk-taking. In his words: From a […]

Learn More August 30, 2006

People for Pluto

We've had this vague itch to scratch for days now. But it took this post by B.L. Ochman to put the issue in perspective and spur us to action. Dr. Hiroshi Kyosuke absolutely and succinctly nailed the case. Plus, with Al Gore championing Planet Earth, the rest of us need to take up the cause […]

Learn More August 29, 2006