Award Winning Blog - Agitator

I Think, Maybe

Conversational hedges are words or phrases indicating uncertainty, tentativeness, or modesty in a conversation. Words like “maybe,” “I think,” or “I’m not sure”. What role do they play? They can make the speaker appear more credible and trustworthy by acknowledging uncertainty. Hedges can also make the speaker seem less pushy, which in turn makes the […]

Learn More December 14, 2022

PI…WWW…AI

I’m old enough to remember the world pre-internet, PI, and the first, niche Tandy personal computers. The screens were microscopic, monotone. You’d run some basic scripts on DOS prompts and that was about it. Early internet was terminally slow but we didn’t know any better. You can still hear the whirring, dinging and high pitched […]

Learn More December 12, 2022

Supporter Motivation Is Under Your Control

Motivation is arguably the coin of the fundraising realm. If a donor feels motivated to give, they’ll keep doing it. Motivation differs by amount, a lot or little and by type, high or low quality. And most importantly it differs by situation or context. We all experience this; different levels of motivation for different jobs […]

Learn More December 9, 2022

What Should You Know When You “Know” A Donor?

Charities love to segment and design appeals and giving programs to fit a group. These groups are typically created using demographics (age or income) or donors’ giving history – sustainers, lapsed sustainers, one-time donors. Segmentation works, helping create more effective appeals. Giving Tuesday can mean something very different to, say, a long-time monthly donor versus […]

Learn More December 7, 2022

Regret Is A Terrible Thing to Waste

Are you less likely to do something again if you regret it? Giving can produce regret and that regret makes me anticipate regret the next time I’m asked to give. And it’s that anticipated regret, caused by prior, experienced regret that makes me less likely to give again. Habits cut both ways and we can […]

Learn More December 5, 2022

Impulse Giving is Deliberative

That’s the oxymoronic finding from research among donors who selected “it was an impulse decision” from a drop-down menu prompt in a hospice organization’s online checkout process asking why they were donating today. These donors were further qualified as not having been prompted to visit the site from a fundraising prompt and only having made […]

Learn More December 2, 2022