Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Cleaning Up Digital Fundraising’s Political Pigpen

Among the lessons I’ve learned over my 60 years in this trade is that whatever the new fundraising technology it produces the same types of reoccurring problems and battles. Then after a suitable period of donor abuse, handwringing, name calling, litigation, legislative threats, and some governmental regulation things calm down and a sort of generally […]

Learn More March 10, 2023

Is Your Quest for Relevance Spewing CO2?

People who say messages must be relevant or authentic are often guilty of putting extra CO2 into the air. These are extra words. Nobody’s advocating or aiming for the opposite. More critically, these extra words are rarely followed with specifics – as in how, exactly. The path to relevance is, like Hell, paved with good […]

Learn More March 8, 2023

Happy or Sad?

If you don’t show a sad face you’re not showing the need and therefore, reason to give. If you show a sad face you’re guilting people into giving and undermining the resilience of the beneficiary. Happy! No, Sad! We want things to be as simple as possible, but not simpler. Arguing for one over […]

Learn More March 6, 2023

Is Your Data Noisy and Ambiguous?

Do you prefer noisy and ambiguous or clear and explicit? Doubt anyone would say the former but the sector, ironically, relies almost exclusively on the noisy and ambiguous kind of data. The person, Clicked – did they click out of idle curiosity or with intent? Did the context (e.g., time of day or mood) impact […]

Learn More March 3, 2023

A Bad Bet

Grammarly is an online tool to help users improve their writing by correcting grammar, spelling, punctuation. It uses reams of machine learning and natural language processing technology to analyze text and provide suggestions for improvements to improve tone or clarity. It has done three rounds of private financing in amounts, $110 million in 2017, $90 […]

Learn More March 1, 2023

Keeping the Soul of Fundraising Alive

Few people pay attention to publishers in the fundraising field. Probably because it’s human nature to take for granted that which deserves our genuine gratitude because we assume it will always be there. You know, things like water (until wells and rivers run dry) or food (until war, drought, floods, and poverty starve or kill […]

Learn More February 27, 2023