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Usually the news about social media is upbeat and urgent — all about the benefits of mastering these tools and networks. Today we have good news and bad regarding social media. The bad news comes in this article: Customer Experience Is Getting Worse. The article looks specifically at whether social media channels, as operated by […]

Learn More March 8, 2016

How’s Your Fundraising Robot Doing?

This Agitator is now back on station following an expedition Down Under to present at the 2016 Conference of the Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA) and to meet with Tom at The Agitator’s Southern Hemisphere HQ for some conspiratorial back and forth on Agitator goals for the future. I’ll be sharing some of the insights […]

Learn More March 7, 2016

Roger & Tom, Thanks For These ‘Top 10’ Funny Subject Lines

My subject line today incorporates the findings of this recent study of email subject lines reported in Nonprofit Pro. According to the study, the most effective email subject lines have these characteristics: Personalization — we all know what that means. Numbers — the article suggests this is about urgency (e.g., 3 days until our matching gift […]

Learn More March 4, 2016

Measuring Donor Experiences – Part 2

In Part 1 I indicated why measuring specific donor experiences represents such a fundamental shift in mindset for most organizations. However, it’s a shift well worth making because measuring the donor experience at various interaction points — and of course acting on what you learn — is one of the ways a nonprofit can grow. […]

Learn More March 1, 2016

Measuring Donor Experiences – Part 1

Old-fashioned, traditional organizations measure the efficiency of the organization’s own internal actions rather than the effectiveness of how the organization’s actions directed toward the donor actually affect donors’ attitudes. A surprising number of fundraisers fail to understand a basic axiom of the organization-donor relationship: It is the actions an organization takes toward its donors (donor […]

Learn More February 29, 2016

Better Face-2-Face Through Feedback

Tom’s piece on Donor Loyalty should remind us all of how little information we really have when it comes to understanding the commitment and loyalty of individual donors. As a result most fundraisers rely on conjecture and so-called ‘best practices’. We look at brand surveys, surveys of general donor populations and organization-specific donors hoping to […]

Learn More February 24, 2016

Are You A Dinosaur?

Hopefully it’s evident by our posts over the past 10 years that Tom and I worry a lot about the future of fundraising and the nonprofit sector. What we don’t spend enough time writing about is the talent pool — more accurately, the talent puddle — that is essential for the future. Consequently, I was […]

Learn More February 16, 2016

Case Study: Raise More, Ask Less

My St. Patrick’s Day post last year — Are You Abusing Your Donors? — triggered a barrage of comments and protestations pro and con. I knew some nerves had been struck. And it wasn’t because of leprechauns or green beer. It was because I raised the question of whether we should reconsider, revise or evolve the direct […]

Learn More February 5, 2016

Death of a Fundraising Evangelist

Tony Elischer, the international fundraising evangelist known for his oft-flamboyant conference presentations and passion for our profession, is dead. The founder of Think Consulting Solutions died January 12th after a yearlong fight with cancer. A world leader in fundraising, Tony travelled widely and, as Ken Burnett, whose agency Tony joined earlier in his career, noted: […]

Learn More January 15, 2016

Essentials Of Innovation

As the year begins, most Agitator readers have made some plans for new approaches, new tactics, to try in the coming year … otherwise more grandly known as ‘innovations’. Seriously, I hope ‘innovation’ means more to fundraisers than testing new envelope teasers and email subject lines. Innovation is serious stuff, and often impeded by poor […]

Learn More January 12, 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: