Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Nonprofit-ness?

What makes a nonprofit a nonprofit? Is it the tax designation, its actions, its beneficiary or its aim? Academics and professionals in the field likely have sharp lines drawn between different actors, be it businesses, government, traditional, tax status defined charities and the growing 4th sector of social enterprise and entrepreneurship that often sidestep 501(c)(3)s. […]

Learn More April 18, 2022

Hidden Threats to Democracy

A healthy democracy, as I pointed out in my last post, is a precondition for moving forward on most of the issues and causes we fundraisers serve. When democracy breaks, the systems, and institutions we strive to fix or improve become far harder or even impossible to repair or advance. The daily flood of human […]

Learn More April 15, 2022

How Much is a Prayer Worth?

There’s lots of talk about non-financial behavior– often dubbed “engagement”– and trying to understand the financial value of it. If someone likes or shares your post, reads your email, signs a digital petition and the list goes on and on…what is it worth? Religious charities often ask people to submit a prayer in some form […]

Learn More April 13, 2022

Personality Pseudoscience

No, not the Big Five model of personality traits that we use as a central part of our fundraising to divide folks on their innate traits and match message to audience. Unfortunately, the Big Five isn’t the most popular, well-known Personality test. It probably needs a new PR agent. Ever heard of Myers-Briggs? Almost certainly. (See […]

Learn More April 11, 2022

Each of Us Must Do Our Part

Within days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, veteran fundraiser Harvey McKinnon, a perpetually outraged saint on behalf of causes that matter, sent out a batch of memes urging fellow fundraisers to put ‘em to good use and help spread the word on the central importance of reducing the use of Russian oil –the main fuel […]

Learn More April 8, 2022

Do Neighbors Always Get the Same Direct Mail?

Bob and Bill are neighbors in Anytown, USA. They’re the same age, race, income and both are married with 2 kids and a dog. They both give to the same NationalCharity.org and the same localfoodbank/mission/animalshelter.org and with an identical RFM profile. Do they get the same direct mail piece? 100% of the time. Why? Are […]

Learn More April 6, 2022