Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Donor Service – Human vs. Machine

Walgreens and AT&T are using your personal data to match you with the right customer service representative. And they are using something called the “break point” to walk right up to, but not over, the line where the customer will leave. They do this through analysis of tone and pace of speech. It’s only at […]

Learn More April 5, 2021

“We Grow Too Soon Old, and Too Late Smart”

That Dutch proverb popped into my head as I read our friend Erica Waasdorp’s piece Is the Interest in Recurring Giving Really Growing? It’s not just because Erica is Dutch, nor because she’s an expert in monthly giving. It’s because her reading of the just-released Nonprofit Pro’s 2021 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study correctly raises […]

Learn More April 2, 2021

Behavioral Design Lab: Fixing your donate page abandon rate

Most people – 8 out of 10 – who make it to your donation page don’t donate. You’re losing 80% of your potential donations. Why? Do we really think people stopped caring between the decision and the action? They lost their motivation, that much is clear. But where did it go? The fuel of motivation […]

Learn More March 31, 2021

F2F – More Bees with Honey (and stings too)

Face-to -face fundraising is a tough business, full of rejection. Although your direct mail appeal gets rejected at an even higher rate (unopened, non-response) it’s less personal, less in your face (literally). Fundraisers need to be resilient. If you can’t handle rejection, you can’t handle the gig. As a relevant aside, DVCanvass (our F2F and […]

Learn More March 29, 2021

URGENCY: Fundraising’s Double Edge

Among the Agitator/DonorVoice behavioral science principles related fundraising is that of urgency. A sense of urgency signals the relative importance of a task, tackles our procrastination and motivates us to act. On the other hand our behavioral scientists sound this warning: “Deadlines are often used to signal urgency, but they might backfire. Long deadlines give […]

Learn More March 26, 2021

The Postal Wolf Is At Your Door

This is an urgent postal alert. If your organization uses the U.S. Mail for fundraising, membership development, or communications you should be taking action today. Let me explain. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is expected to announce its next rate increase — a whooping 6% to 8.5% depending on the class of mail—by the […]

Learn More March 24, 2021