Innovation - Agitator

Fundraising analytics / data

Think Locally, Act Locally

How do people think about and organize their giving? Do people have a favorite charity or two for each sub-sector that matters to them? The pie-chart of giving method? What about the stacked bar chart method where folks are single-issue oriented and give to 5-7 conservation charities, for example? I expect most readers would bet […]

Learn More May 27, 2022

Time for a Money Revolution in the Board Room

Conventional wisdom in nonprofit board rooms, as best as I can tell, is that “in the midst of these uncertain political and economic times we should pull back”…”husband our resources”…”not be aggressive at a time like this”….and a thousand other cautionary excuses. Frankly, whether in good times or bad that’s usually the case because the […]

Learn More May 18, 2022

Could Your Storytelling Use Some Help?

A story well told lights up the same parts of the brain as if we experienced it directly. That’s powerful. But telling me to use stories and showing lots of examples is like expecting me to pick up a foreign language by watching a foreign language movie. I need a lot more specific instruction and […]

Learn More May 13, 2022

Does Your Copy Feel Personal and Readable?

NextAfter has run and published more email test results than you can shake a stick at. What have they learned? More conversational and natural copy wins. A water is wet finding? Maybe, but there is a big difference between believing this or knowing it and having copy that does it well. Our sample […]

Learn More May 11, 2022

We Don’t Write So Good. And How to Easily Fix It

This is the cover page of the co-branded, jointly produced report on the state of email copy from NextAfter and DonorVoice. In this case, you can judge the book by its cover. It’s a large email sample and the report is visually appealing, easy to read and easy to find nuggets of goodness. One of […]

Learn More May 9, 2022

Earth Day 2022: The Fundraiser’s Carbon Shadow

Today marks the 52nd Earth Day. A most appropriate time for all us fundraisers to think about what we’re really doing –professionally, personally and collectively—to save our planet. Before I report on a pioneering climate change effort now being undertaken by a Canadian direct mail agency a brief review of how the cause of helping […]

Learn More April 22, 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

Fundraising Lessons From the Liberty Ship Innovation

Shipbuilding pre-WWII was akin to fundraising before mass market channels existed—highly bespoke and tailored to the buyer, time consuming and with non-scalable labor as the primary input. Necessity often being the mother of all invention, the shipbuilding industry in the United States underwent a radical transformation to meet the needs of the Allied cause. But […]

Learn More March 11, 2022

Is Mass Fundraising Extinct?

For the past 10 years The Agitator has sought to put meat on the jargon-ridden bones of the Donor-Centric skeleton. That’s why we dwell so much on essential vertebrae of donor-centricity such as Donor Identity, Donor Psychology and Personality to name a few. Although this detail is essential in becoming truly donor-centric, it’s important to […]

Learn More February 7, 2022

The High Cost of Sacred Cows

Let’s make a wager. I’m betting there’s no more than one out of every 1,000 disease or health care nonprofits in the world with the guts or leadership to follow the process I’m about to outline. It’s donor-centric but also so very, very counterintuitive to what most organizations would—but should—do. I’m certain (sadly) that my […]

Learn More January 28, 2022

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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Fundraising analytics / data

Think Locally, Act Locally

Time for a Money Revolution in the Board Room

Could Your Storytelling Use Some Help?

Does Your Copy Feel Personal and Readable?

We Don’t Write So Good. And How to Easily Fix It

Earth Day 2022: The Fundraiser’s Carbon Shadow

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

Fundraising Lessons From the Liberty Ship Innovation

Is Mass Fundraising Extinct?

The High Cost of Sacred Cows

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?

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?

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?

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?

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

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