Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Removing and Adding Words to Make Copy Better

Jeff Brooks wrote a post way back in 2011, which is a millenia ago in Covid years. He gave prescient advice on removing words to make copy better. Among his list, Removing the first one to three paragraphs. He describes these as mostly “warm up” and extraneous. We’d agree. Most copy is not good and […]

Learn More March 8, 2021

Transactional Segmentation is NOT Strategic Segmentation

“Wait!”, I hear you cry. “You preach on cause and effect and past behavior does predict future behavior. How is that not strategic?” We’ll stipulate: A person will tend to give the amounts that they have given in the past A current donor is more likely to give than a lapsed donor A donor who […]

Learn More March 5, 2021

Two climbers walk into a bar…

A man and woman walk into a bar and sit beside a fundraiser. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. The Fundraiser says to the man and woman, “I work for a charity helping make sure outdoor enthusiasts have access to public lands.” In unison, the Man and Woman, say, “We just came here for […]

Learn More March 3, 2021

Walmart’s Mega Nudging Test

Walmart partnered with academics whose listing on the published paper reads like the credits on a Hollywood blockbuster movie, which is to say almost as long as the movie. The aim? Increasing flu vaccination rates in hopes it would provide guidance for increasing Covid vaccine uptake. This team of social scientists came up with 22 […]

Learn More March 1, 2021

Donor Autonomy on Steroids

Is there such a thing as giving too much control to donors? The sector generally operates as though donor control is bad at worst and undesirable at best This sector norm is reflected in many conventional practices: not publishing or promoting or making clear how donors names will be sold eight ways to Sunday […]

Learn More February 26, 2021

Do Rich Donors Differ from Not-Rich Donors? From “Middle”-Rich Donors?

Do people writing four figure checks (i.e. $1,000 to $9,999) have different needs from those donating $20 or those moving the comma and decimal point to the right for an even larger gift? What about the “high touch package to create an elevated donor experience” for the four-figure check group? This is a recommendation in […]

Learn More February 24, 2021