Fundraising philosophy/profession

Do The Job Or Do The Work?

In his Starting Over series, Roger will be urging fundraisers to take a fresh look at how we’re going about our work. In yesterday’s post he commented that “much of our sector just keeps doing the same thing over and over and over”, arguing that “too many fundraisers. simply coast through their professional life following the consensus. They truly […]

Learn More June 22, 2016

Starting Over #2: Switching From Old Rules To New Rules

Why bother even thinking about starting over? What’s wrong with what we’re doing? Everyone else is doing about the same thing, so why bother changing? Failure to ask and correctly answer those key questions is likely to eventually find your organization joining the nonprofit equivalents of Pan Am, Polaroid, Nokia, and Kodak. Once-great organizations that […]

Learn More June 21, 2016

How Effective Is Our Fundraising?

The latest stats from Giving USA might be cause for smug satisfaction. Overall giving in the U.S. reached record highs at $373.25 billion in 2015, up 4.1% from the previous year. This amount covers giving from US-based individuals and institutions to US-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations. [I come from the advocacy world and would note that […]

Learn More June 15, 2016

Starting Over #1: Where Do We Go From Here?

In announcing this Agitator Starting Over series I posed the fundamental question that will guide this exploration: How would you build a growing, sustainable nonprofit from scratch in today’s fast-changing and challenging environment? Tom and I are thrilled with the outpouring of suggestions and recommendations for the series, and specific proposals that might brighten the […]

Learn More June 13, 2016

On Ignoring Donors Needs and Preferences

In working on the Starting Over series that we’ll launch next week I’ve been fretting, worrying and, frankly damn near exploding with frustration. So please permit me this rant. There’s no question that virtually everyone has an excuse for not changing. Frankly I blame most of this resistance to the idiocy of stingy boards and […]

Learn More June 10, 2016

Starting Over … Tom’s Take

Yesterday Roger previewed a new Agitator series with the theme, Starting Over. To Roger, ‘starting over’ means going back to and addressing the most fundamental questions: What does our donor want? Are we delivering it? Why are they leaving? As Roger sees it (watch for his rant on this tomorrow), if you aren’t focused on those […]

Learn More June 9, 2016

Starting Over

Not knowing what you’re doing is more and more acceptable in this complex and fast changing world we work in. But pretending and preaching that you know what you’re doing is dangerous. For you. For your organization. For your clients. For the future of our sector. I’m increasingly convinced that making bold predictions, spread-sheeting three […]

Learn More June 8, 2016

Protecting Michael Moore AND The Koch Brothers

Have the names of your contributors been illegally and publicly exposed by the Attorney General of California? See for yourself. Here’s a 116-page list of organizations whose major contributors were “inadvertently” made public on the website of the California AG. This is the third week in a row I’ve found it necessary to single out the […]

Learn More June 6, 2016

What Are You?

Are you really a Fundraiser? Or, are you just a Fundraising Monitor? “Why monitor a problem if you don’t fix it?” Here at The Agitator we sure do a lot of monitoring. Tom and I think we should also be doing more along the lines of encouraging, debating and reporting on ‘fixing’. It’s clear from […]

Learn More May 31, 2016

When Women Win

I unwrapped the package from Simone Joyoux and out fell a card bearing this moving quotation from Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman in the U.S. to become a federal judge: “Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.” Inside the package was a remarkable gift of a book […]

Learn More May 25, 2016

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: