Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Fundraisers Are Not In The Persuasion Business

Our business is fundraising. We try to get folks to engage in helping behavior, giving and doing. We are not in the persuasion business. If we were, we’d be out of business. As Jack Trout, famous ad man said, “if the job is to persuade people, don’t accept the job.” Our job is to meet […]

Learn More May 2, 2022

Write Like An Academic?

In our world, writing like an Academic is bad. That is intuitively known and empirically proven with Copy Optimizer. You don’t want your copy sitting in the bottom left quadrant – no story and informationally dense. As it turns out, it’s also bad for Academics to write like an Academic in Academia. A study took […]

Learn More April 29, 2022

Is Your Copy Authentic?

Authentic might be my favorite, least favorite word. There was a time when I liked it, back when authentic meant, well, you know, authentic. But, like many English words it got misused and overused to the point of almost making it the opposite of itself. Authentic can’t be claimed, only bestowed. But the concept matters […]

Learn More April 27, 2022

How to Make Your Copy Better

It’s here. It’s time. Heck, it’s past time. You can stop holding your breathe, especially the purple person in the back. No more waiting, you’re a minute or two from reimagining and reinvigorating your fundraising copy. Finally, objective scores for your fundraising copy. Want to know, for sure, if your copy is Readable and has […]

Learn More April 25, 2022

Earth Day 2022: The Fundraiser’s Carbon Shadow

Today marks the 52nd Earth Day. A most appropriate time for all us fundraisers to think about what we’re really doing –professionally, personally and collectively—to save our planet. Before I report on a pioneering climate change effort now being undertaken by a Canadian direct mail agency a brief review of how the cause of helping […]

Learn More April 22, 2022

The Power of $.99 Not Created Equal

The consumer world is way ahead in understanding the science and psychology of price on decision making. Suffice to say what a person is willing to pay and how they feel about it is highly malleable. In our world there’s still a lot to learn and optimize for our price equivalent– ask amounts. We’re not […]

Learn More April 20, 2022