Advocacy Fundraising

Does Biden/Trump Winning 2024 Lower Charitable Giving?

The answer is an emphatic yes and no. The classic case of crowding out is government spending on social ills that lowers the need for individuals to give. Empirical evidence for this effect has been mixed. But, what if the effect is more complicated than that and what if it has nothing to do with […]

Learn More September 12, 2022

Petitions With Purpose

I’m sure everyone in the advocacy world wonders just how well the flood of digital petitions we dump on Congress by the millions is really working. Whether they’re simply tallied–“Yea” in this spreadsheet column, “Nay” in the other before a staff member hits delete or the autoresponder thanks the voter and promises to take their […]

Learn More August 11, 2022

If No One Came to Work Could the Movement Run Itself?

This tongue-in-cheek headline raises the question of just how effective progressive advocacy and social change organizations can be when a good part of their staff energy is focused on battling each other rather than advancing the group’s mission at this critical moment in history. This is particularly true when it comes to reproductive rights organizations […]

Learn More July 22, 2022

Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore

July 4th, the day to celebrate and remember what America’s all about. On this fraught-filled, future-fearing July 4th I sure as hell hope we’re all taking the remembering seriously. Because Agitator’s mission focuses on direct response fundraising, I’ll forego the usual patriotic platitudes. Instead for Independence Day 2022 I’m invoking the memory and wisdom of […]

Learn More July 4, 2022

The Non-Political Twitterverse

Much ink has been spilled decrying social media rabbit holes and political echo chambers that threaten our democracy by increasing hyper-partisanship and extremism. What if that’s fake news? It’s true there are hyper-partisan people on Twitter. It’s also true many of these hyper-partisans are opinion influencers with big followings. The problem with the echo-chamber thesis […]

Learn More June 8, 2022

Digital Donor Abuse

With another batch of primary elections behind us and more still ahead…with the future of Roe v. Wade and reproductive rights hanging in the balance…with heartbreaking scourge of mass shootings at schools and shopping centers…there’s barely time to ponder the ultimate fate of life as we know it either by pandemic, famine, flood, locusts, or […]

Learn More May 25, 2022

Hidden Threats to Democracy

A healthy democracy, as I pointed out in my last post, is a precondition for moving forward on most of the issues and causes we fundraisers serve. When democracy breaks, the systems, and institutions we strive to fix or improve become far harder or even impossible to repair or advance. The daily flood of human […]

Learn More April 15, 2022

Fundraising in Inflation and Under Threat of Nuclear War. 7 Survival Tips for 2022

Here we go again. The phone’s ringing, the email inbox dinging as colleagues attempt to figure out what to do in a world that more than ever seems to be falling apart. Over Agitator’s 15 years our readers have witnessed a litany of financial meltdowns (2008), pandemic disasters (2020) and now in 2022 inflation coupled […]

Learn More March 14, 2022

The Importance of Building Trust in a Cynical World

Can declining trust in institutions be partially at fault for the overall decline in personal giving? That’s a critical question international fundraiser Richard Pordes posed in commenting on our post reprinting Tom Ahern’s Is Mass Fundraising Extinct? In Richard’s words: “But aren’t there larger societal trends that have caused the decline in numbers of households […]

Learn More February 11, 2022

Does Your Lead Generation Attract the Best Donors?

Given the tsunami of petitions, surveys and other devices flooding both my postal and digital mailboxes it’s clear that more and more organizations are turning to lead generation as the first step in their donor acquisition programs. The question, of course, is just how well do these leads convert to good donors? And what steps […]

Learn More January 14, 2022

Ask A Behavioral Scientist

Behavioral Science Q & A

Q:We are struggling with acquistion. During our biggest community campaign, a colleague is suggesting that we have a QR code directing donors to a donate page that does not capture donor information – just a donation and an email address. We won’t be able to post any of these new doors our lvoely newsletters, or thank you letters. We’ll likely never hear from them again. What’s the best method to get this team to see the importance about a donor vs a donation?

Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, capturing donor information can be helpful for stewardship like newsletters, thank-you letters, impact updates. But how you ask matters. Forcing full data capture introduces friction that can significantly depress conversion, many donors may simply abandon the process. Beyond the friction itself, required fields also shift the emotional experience […]

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Q: Should we include “Giving Tuesday” in the subject lines for the emails that are going out before Giving Tuesday?

Unlike holidays that everyone already knows, Giving Tuesday is a created event. Many donors recognize the name but not the exact timing, so referencing it becomes a helpful cue. It serves as a reminder and taps into social norm activation (“everyone’s giving today”), which boosts response. However, we still want it paired with the mission, […]

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Q: can we pull the match language into the subject lines? Or this should be an A/B test?

When a subject line leads with the match (“Your gift matched!”), it risks triggering market-norm thinking: the sense that giving is a financial transaction rather than an act rooted in values, identity, and care. This shift reduces intrinsic motivation and, over time, can weaken donor satisfaction and long-term engagement. It also makes the email indistinguishable […]

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Q: Our mid-level donor team removed the QR code from the DM donation form that links to the donation page, but have left the URL for them to type it in manually. Not sure why they are adding a barrier to the donation process for a higher value donor – but I have to ask – is there any proof – either way – if a QR donation code reduces MV online giving, has any effect on their donation amount, has any effect on off line donations? Thank you….

There’s no evidence that QR codes suppress mid-value giving; all available research suggests they either help or have no negative effect. In fact, behavioral and usability research consistently shows the opposite: reducing friction at any point in the donation process increases completion rates and total response. And that has nothing to do with capacity and […]

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Q: How can we effectively use behavioral science to help shift our Board’s mindset. The majority are extremely resistant to asking their networks or sharing their contact lists with us, even after a candid discussion with an external lay leader who has been training boards with her fantastic Fundraising isn’t the F Word! workshop. We have also offered to use our automated email tool to send their appeals from their own email. It is so frustrating. We even have 2 Board members and the chair trying put some accountability on them for our big event but people are not really moving!

What you’re experiencing is very common. Resistance often isn’t about capability, but about motivation quality. If board members feel pushed into fundraising, that triggers controlled motivation (low quality motivation) i.e. obligation, guilt, or fear of judgment, which often results in avoidance. Instead, we need to create conditions for volitional motivation (high quality motivation) by satisfying […]

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Q: Copywriters often argue the ask should appear on the first page, but that usually breaks the story in two. With a one-sided letter the ask is always on page one, but with a two-sided letter it may fall on the second page—do results differ? Has your appeal structure been tested on both one-sided and two-sided letters? I just read the article Your Appeal Outline: Thoughtful Strategy or Random Spasm?

That’s a really thoughtful question, and you’re not the first to raise it. Many of our clients have been cautious about placing the ask at the very end. To address their concern, we’ve tested both approaches, and the results are clear: when the ask comes last, even if that means it appears on the second […]

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