Award Winning Blog - Agitator

How to Have More Winning Tests?

Stop designing tests assuming everyone’s the same. 99.9% of tests are of this variety, the random nth, A/B test. Hidden in many “losing” test results is a test idea that worked for some people and not others. Here are results of an experiment with donations going to World Vision and prospective donors randomly split into […]

Learn More June 18, 2021

The Value of a Fundraiser

Almost every sector of the economy is now facing the issue of how many employees will actually return vs. how many will simply opt for greener pastures. If the financial meltdown of 2008 was the Great Recession, will almost-post-pandemic- 2021 turn out to be the Great Resignation. Virtually every part of the nonprofit sector – […]

Learn More June 16, 2021

Humility in Numeracy

Numeracy, defined as a basic understanding and ability to work with numbers, matters. The less numerate earn less and have less wealth. They’re also more likely to have chronic disease, take more prescription drugs and be less able to follow the (partly numerated) instructions, thus adding more health risk. Some of this is conflated with […]

Learn More June 14, 2021

Update on the Cost of Embalming An Elephant

I know that’s a strange headline, but I wanted to call your attention to something so basic that I’m constantly amazed so many fundraisers simply overlook it. I’m talking about the basic data of our trade – names, addresses, deceased donors and fundamental demographics—the very “simple” stuff that makes the difference in any donor communication […]

Learn More June 11, 2021

The Corvallis Effect and Donor Fatigue

A mysterious student has been attending class at Oregon State University for the past two months enveloped in a big, black bag. Only his bare feet show. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11am the Black Bag sits on a small table near the back of the classroom. The class is Speech 113 – basic […]

Learn More June 9, 2021

Turning Vision Into Reality — Update on CopyOptimizer

Because it’s been a year since Kevin first unveiled CopyOptimizer™ this is an appropriate time for an update. His dream was creation of an online tool to help everyone–including you and me– write better, more effective copy. Anyhow, that vision has now turned into a reality. Lots of fundraisers are currently alpha testing it. I’ve come to recognize its immense value—especially where email is concerned. By and large the quality of copy where email is concerned is downright dreadful. Not healthy, especially when more and more organizations are relying […]

Learn More June 7, 2021