Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me…

Conversation abounds in fundraising whether in-person or over the phone and everybody notes we should be active listeners and strive to make our conversations, well, conversational. That feels thin. Social science has a better answer with implications for humans talking to humans but of equal import for AI bots that are rapidly evolving in ways […]

Learn More August 21, 2024

700 X Match to Aid Widow of The Unknown Soldier

Monday’s opening of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago will do more than boost cable news channel ratings. It’ll open the floodgates even more to the incessant flood of digital appeals filling your donors’ inboxes and likely yours as well. Bobbing up with increasing frequency in that digital flood will be the sewage of the […]

Learn More August 19, 2024

Is the Ask for a What or Who?

There are two mental giving decisions, will I give? (yes/no) and conditional on a yes, how much? Nobody makes the first decision because they’ve got an affinity for blankets over solar lamps. We give to reinforce who we are and it’s easier to see me in another person or story then an inanimate object. But […]

Learn More August 16, 2024

Do You Fundraise At or With?

Does your fundraising ask who should I send this appeal to or what appeal should I send to this person? Fundraising at vs. fundraising with. It’s the difference between involving and connecting versus hoping that people give you the mental time to see themselves in your appeal. Most won’t. We also call it bookend fundraising, […]

Learn More August 14, 2024

Hand Size and Fundraising Success

A belief, once firmly held, is hard to change, even when the evidence and data overwhelmingly refute that belief. Take male hand size. We all know it correlates with…lower fumble rate among NFL Quarterbacks (what were you thinking?) Every year the NFL evaluates college players and their pro worthiness with something called the “combine”. One […]

Learn More August 12, 2024

People Are Different, Does Your Test Design Ignore This?

Hidden in many “losing” test results is a test idea that worked for some people and not others. Here are experiment results for World Vision among prospective donors randomly split into the control with altruism messaging and a test with self-interest messaging. Nothing to see here. The test lost. Discard, move on…unless you designed your […]

Learn More August 9, 2024

Award-Winning Blog

Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me…