Donor acquisition - Agitator

Board Meeting Swipe File

Fundraising Evolution and Revolution

Let’s jump right to the pressing topic of fundraising evolution, perhaps even revolution, on this first Monday of 2016. You’ll recall that on New Year’s day Tom and I left you with the promise that we’d be devoting serious attention in 2016 to the types of changes in mindset and methods we believe are essential […]

Learn More January 4, 2016

Best Of The Agitator – 2015 – Innovation and Myth

There’s no question in our minds that the fundraising trade relies heavily on myth and is a bit light on innovation. Often the myths masquerade as ‘best practices’ and go empirically unchallenged for years and years. When challenged there is usually quite a dust up as folks move to defend those ‘best practices’ –even in […]

Learn More December 31, 2015

Year End Fundraising Numbers

A perennial question in fundraising shops between now and the end of January will be, “Did we make the numbers for 2015?” Regardless of the answer, there are several questions that are far more important for the future of your organization, and there’s no better time than in these closing days of 2015 to ask […]

Learn More December 21, 2015

24 Reasons Why Board Members Won’t Ask For Money & What To Do About It

According to his publisher Jerry Panas’ ASKING is America’s top selling fundraising book. Aimed primarily at board members the book is designed to provide helpful advice and motivation to ask for a gift while taking the fear out of the process. And, according to the publisher, all in a 59 minute read. So it figures that […]

Learn More December 10, 2015

Listening To The Data vs Data Denial

Many if not most Agitator readers are in the direct marketing side of fundraising. And therefore they should be swimming in valuable data with which to make smart decisions about ongoing and future fundraising investments and tactics. But, I wonder … is that really what happens? In some cases, too much data could get in […]

Learn More September 16, 2015

Do Or Die Time

We’re now into that ‘do or die’ time of the fundraising year. Surely you’ve laid your plans for the big year-end push … exactly how many mail and email appeals will you squeeze into the next 122 days? How many of those will be in the last 10 days?! Pamela Barden’s recent post — Fundraising’s […]

Learn More August 31, 2015

American Cancer Society Flops

If bullshit were the new cure for cancer then the direct marketing staff and consultants of the American Cancer Society should win the Nobel Prize in Medicine hands down. That was pretty much the conclusion of dozens of Agitator readers who phoned, emailed and texted following their attendance at last week’s presentation at the DMANF New […]

Learn More August 10, 2015

Innovation Series #3: Exalting the Trivial

A significant barrier to true innovation stems from most nonprofits’ fixation on minutiae that simply doesn’t matter. As part of his 2012 series on Flat Earth Fundraising Roger alerted us to the dangers of Wasting Time by Exalting the Trivial . –The Editors By Roger Craver | July 25, 2012 Within hours of our call for […]

Learn More August 5, 2015

Innovation Series #2: What Causes Innovation

In this 2nd of our series on “Innovation” drawing from the Agitator vault here’s a post How Does Innovation Occur we wrote eight years ago. Still seems current and if you didn’t read the interview the first time around here’s your second chance. The Editors Tom and Roger | July 2, 2007 Here’s an […]

Learn More August 4, 2015

Innovation Series #1- Are You Up for It?

At the end of the day all marketing efforts live or die by execution and innovation. Fundraising is no exception. A number of readers, most recently Mike Browne have requested we revisit the issue of innovation. So, starting with this post–What’s Your Innovation Quotient— here’s what The Agitator has had to say. We’ll begin with […]

Learn More August 3, 2015

Ask A Behavioral Scientist

Behavioral Science Q & A

Q: Do you have any insight on whether integrating an individual giving appeal with other comms from the charity in both appearance and messaging can uplift results? Or does the actual appeal become ‘lost’ for lack of stand-out?

Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]

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Q: Is there any research on response rate impact in direct mail when referring to a sustainer gift as ongoing or recurring (catching all frequencies) v. monthly or annual?

I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]

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Q: A major conservation nonprofit sends me lots of mail, many of which have on the envelope “time to renew” or “2nd notice.” I find this practice deceptive, especially as I haven’t given to said organization since 1997. It must be effective or they wouldn’t do it. But is it ethical?

Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]

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Q: I find it irritating when some nonprofits accept my “gift” and then ask me to cover their credit card fees separately. It feels like a practice that does nothing to help win donors and runs the risk of turning others off. Is there any data on this either way?

Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]

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Q: What are the three most important things to consider when designing a brilliant supporter journey?

There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]

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Q: Is there any evidence that changes to the tax laws in the USA changed end of year giving behaviors? Previously, ~30% of US taxpayers filed itemized tax returns allowing them to receive a deduction for charitable giving. Tax law changed in 2017 so that now only ~10% itemize. This should mean tax year-end giving should not matter to millions of people for whom it used to matter. Is there any data evidence to support this?

I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]

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The Agitator Tool Box

Ideas, applications, tools, processes, and case studies of break-through solutions in fundraising, including: