Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Cost to Raise a Dollar Is a Terrible North Star

Nonprofits don’t drift into short-termism because fundraisers are shallow, boards are naïve, or donors are irrational. They drift because volume machine system scorecard makes short-termism feel responsible. Conversion rate, cost per acquisition, ROAS, and cost to raise a dollar define success as whatever is immediate and attributable. Inside that world, the only decisions that look […]

Learn More January 28, 2026

Why Not Asking Can Be the Highest-Value Decision

Fundraising calendars carry an assumption so familiar it rarely gets questioned. If we aren’t asking, we must be losing $. The logic feels airtight. Appeals go out, money comes back, reports show positive net and the activity feels justified. Asking seems to cause giving, so more asking should produce more revenue. That belief survives because […]

Learn More January 26, 2026

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? What Real Personalization Actually Buys You

Picture two donors who give to the same food bank. One always has a plan, calendars are full, bills paid early. They give because keeping things stable matters, and because someone needs to make sure the system holds. The other is just as generous, but wired differently. She’s energized by new ideas, new approaches, and […]

Learn More January 23, 2026

Are You Growing…Or Just Getting Busier?

Nonprofits love metrics. They collect them the way some folks where I grew up collected souvenir spoons: polished, displayed, and mostly useless in any practical sense. They count: email volume impressions clicks campaign sends open rates ROAS conversion rate “engagement” (a word that means everything and therefore nothing) And if you’re really modern, you’ve got […]

Learn More January 21, 2026

Movements Aren’t Sold, They’re Joined

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” — Martin Luther King Jr. MLK didn’t “increase conversion” by pushing harder, he did it by standing for something so clear, human and morally framed that people wanted in. If your fundraising strategy is built on touchpoints, tactics (premiums, matching gifts), frequency and sprinkles […]

Learn More January 19, 2026

Conservatives from Mercury, Liberals from Pluto?

There is a common assumption in politics and fundraising that conservatives and liberals live in different moral worlds, different values, instincts, languages. It isn’t Venus vs. Mars, it’s more astrologocial miles, Mercury vs. Pluto maybe. The implication is if you want to reach one, you should not sound like the other. That assumption drives a […]

Learn More January 16, 2026