Mobile marketing and fundraising

Hurricane Dorian and the Season Ahead

From Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to this year’s Hurricane Dorian The Agitator follows fundraising fallout from major storms and natural disasters. As I write this early in the morning of the U.S. Labor Day the path of Dorian is still uncertain. What is for sure is that this is a big (huge) storm and holds the […]

Learn More September 2, 2019

Takeaways From the 2019 M+R Benchmarks Study

Yesterday, on the perfect date, M+R published its 2019 online benchmarking data; it’s well worth a read. Some of the data that jumped out at us: Online giving was close to flat, only up 1%. While this fits with the general “where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?” concerns about overall […]

Learn More April 26, 2019

Online Giving At the Big Kids Table

An occupational hazard of blogging is the envy that arises from reading something you wish you’d written. That’s how I felt about Steve MacLaughlin’s The End of the Beginning for Online Giving. In fact, if you read only one blog post today, 1) put this one down, 2) pick that one up, 3) come back […]

Learn More March 8, 2019

Agitator Readers Call Bullshit: #2

The responses to yesterday’s post and the Confidential Agitator Survey were both thoughtful and concerning. [If you haven’t already completed the survey, I hope you will take 3 minutes and do so today. Just click here.] Clearly, many readers responding to the survey have experienced significant frustration, confusion and substantial lost income in their efforts to […]

Learn More February 27, 2019

Mid-Term Palette Cleanser

The mid-term elections in the U.S. can’t come—and go– soon enough as far as I’m concerned. I’m sick and tired of the incessant parade of tv spots warning that unless I vote Republican the liberal mob, reinforced by a caravan of dangerous immigrants somewhere south of the Border will destroy jobs and turn us all […]

Learn More October 22, 2018

Confucius on Fundraising Tech Tools

The other day I received an email from the admirably and voraciously curious Simone Joyaux attaching the 2018 Global NGO Technology Report listing the “10 Most Effective Tools” for online use by nonprofits around the world. Simone asked: “Do you believe the nonprofits are “correct”? Or, are theser nonprofits thinking stuff is good but they don’t actually know […]

Learn More April 17, 2018

Paying to Acquire Advocates

Last month, we talked about the advocate donor identity: how to tell if you have one, the science behind online activism, and how to get and convert advocates. Let’s assume you’ve gone through those, determined you have an advocate identity, and found it to be valuable (not all advocates are and advocacy is not a […]

Learn More March 27, 2018

Advocacy Fundraising #3: Finding and Converting Advocates

You’ve defined your Advocate Identity. And you know the slacktivism traps. But, how do you acquire constituents who are advocates, then convert them to donors? There are services like Care2 and CQ Roll Call that will sell you advocates. I’ve heard mixed results from these services, including one recently who said her online advocates finally […]

Learn More February 23, 2018

Advocacy Fundraising #2: Slacktivism Science

Online advocacy has a bad name. Specifically: slacktivism (or clicktivism). Seth Meyers put the prevailing opinion into funny words on SNL: “Look, if you make a Facebook page we will “like” it—it’s the least we can do. But it’s also the most we can do.” This frames the debate well. Is online activism a prelude […]

Learn More February 22, 2018

Advocacy Fundraising #1: The Advocate Identity

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a three-part series on Advocacy Fundraising. Part 1: the Importance of Advocate Identity. Part 2: Slactivism Science. Separating the wheat from the chaff. Part 3: Putting it all together. Finding and Converting Advocates. ——————————————————————————————————————- THE ADVOCATE IDENTITY Do you recognize any of these signs? Some of your supporters will […]

Learn More February 21, 2018

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer