Media usage / trends

Beware of Old Tricks, Not Dogs

For years, in The Agitator and as a principal in a direct response fundraising firm, I’ve held firm in my opposition to two types of fees: those based on volume, and the traditional 15% commission fee for purchasing and placement of media. I oppose them for one simple reason: they align the incentives with the […]

Learn More December 11, 2024

Why Are You Waiting?

More than a decade ago before fleeing to New Zealand, Tom Belford, then co-editor of The Agitator dismissed my enthusiasm for a budding new media tool—the Podcast. With a swipe of his keyboard he proclaimed, “Podcasts are the over-hyped Segways of the new media world. They’re for eccentrics […]

Learn More July 17, 2024

From Ship Building to Ship Wrecking

Let’s face it, most fundraisers and the nonprofits they serve—along with virtually every other profession– are governed by motives beyond just the noble ones they claim. Nonprofits need to raise money to survive. Journalism is a business that needs to make money to survive. Political candidates need to raise money to campaign and win. Increasingly there […]

Learn More March 1, 2024

Give Your Supporters A Break

Breaks are necessary for our sanity and productivity. Not exactly a breakthrough statement. Yet, we rarely follow that advice. How many back-to-back calls did you have this week? Can you remember how you felt after the last one? In a recent study, Microsoft examined the effects of back-to-back video calls on stress, and engagement. They […]

Learn More September 29, 2023

The Enshittification of Digital Donor Acquisition

It’s no secret, it’s increasingly difficult and expensive finding new donors online. Remember the Facebook ads glory days in the 2010s? It seemed all we had to do was upload a list of performing donors, spawn some lookalike audiences, toss in some photos with the right aspect ratios, slap a good caption on it, then […]

Learn More August 25, 2023

Cleaning Up Digital Fundraising’s Political Pigpen

Among the lessons I’ve learned over my 60 years in this trade is that whatever the new fundraising technology it produces the same types of reoccurring problems and battles. Then after a suitable period of donor abuse, handwringing, name calling, litigation, legislative threats, and some governmental regulation things calm down and a sort of generally […]

Learn More March 10, 2023

Is Twitter Political?

Much ink has been spilled decrying social media rabbit holes and political echo chambers, threatening our democracy by increasing hyper-partisanship and extremism. And that was before Musk. What if it’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 […]

Learn More December 16, 2022

PI…WWW…AI

I’m old enough to remember the world pre-internet, PI, and the first, niche Tandy personal computers. The screens were microscopic, monotone. You’d run some basic scripts on DOS prompts and that was about it. Early internet was terminally slow but we didn’t know any better. You can still hear the whirring, dinging and high pitched […]

Learn More December 12, 2022

Are Your Email Donors Different from Your Mail Donors?

The polls got a relative drubbing in 2016 but their long-term win rate is off the charts. One 2016 theory alive and well going into 2022 was polls suffered from response bias, the people willing to be polled had different candidate preference from those showing up to vote. More specifically, Republican voters were less willing […]

Learn More November 16, 2022

Election ’22: Will the “Youth Vote” Matter?

Blue wave? Red wave? Tsunami or mere ripple? With only hours to go before Tuesday’s Mid-Term elections the outcome is anyone’s guess. There are almost as many “answers” as there are pundits prognosticating. One of the major unknowns is the wild card labeled “the Youth Vote.” I say “wild card” because of this group’s historically […]

Learn More November 7, 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 […]

Read Full Answer

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, […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer