Nonprofit management - Agitator

Donor acquisition

Acquisition: Asking The Wrong Question

Our August post on Catch & Release Fishing focused — yet again — on the burning need to get serious about retention. At the time Lisa Sargent worried that our intense focus on retention might be interpreted as damning acquisition in general, and she urged us to do more on the flip side of the […]

Learn More September 27, 2012

The Quadriga Plot Thickens

In its second installment on fundraising this week, CNN, via Anderson Cooper 360, again criticized the fundraising practices of Quadriga Art. This time CNN says eleven charities “have been turned upside down” by millions of dollars of debt to Quadriga. For example, Help the Children in California received $32,000 out of hundreds of thousands raised. […]

Learn More September 26, 2012

CNN Continues Investigation Of Quadriga Art

As Roger anticipated in his post last week, Take This To Your Board and CEO Today, CNN’s investigation of the fundraising practices of Quadriga Art and certain of its clients continues. Last night, CNN aired this segment on Anderson Cooper 360, this time reporting that the Disabled Veterans National Foundation, a Quadriga Art client already […]

Learn More September 24, 2012

Donor Trust

What do our recent posts — Take This To Your CEO & Board Today and Invitation: 2nd US Donor Commitment Study — have in common? Other than that they are both ‘must read’? Donor trust. The first post describes how some charities and their agencies are doing their damn best to destroy donor trust in […]

Learn More September 20, 2012

Take This To Your CEO & Board, Today!

Here’s your disturbing wake-up call for Monday, September 17th — and for the rest of this year no doubt. An almost tsumani-like wave of major media stories on questionable nonprofit practices has hit the shores of our sector and shows no sign of quietly fading away. Great damage is in store for our sector. And […]

Learn More September 17, 2012

Retention Mailings Up

The Agitator is gratified by this report from Fundraising Success indicating that retention mailings have grown by 16% from 2010 to 2011. As Ethan Boldt observes: “…fundraisers are putting more emphasis on keeping the donors they have on their rolls.” Hallelujah! [Check our postings under ‘donor retention’.] He also notes that expire mailings also went […]

Learn More September 13, 2012

Commitment Is Everywhere

At Loyalty360.org, I came across this article — Are Your Customers Brand Loyal or Category Loyal? — which looks at customer loyalty in the consumer package goods (CPG) realm. We’re talking diapers and toothpaste. The author, Suzy Cox, focuses on the steady rise of ‘private label brands’, which now account for roughly 23% of unit […]

Learn More September 11, 2012

Down With Fundraising Nonsense

During last week’s Bridge Conference in Washington, DC I recommended that every organization and every agency conduct a ‘Nonsense Audit’. Conducting an audit like this represents nothing more—or less – than a serious effort to identify those huge, non-productive, expensive time-wasters and complexities that add little value, but serve as enormous barriers to change and […]

Learn More August 13, 2012

Flat Earth Fundraising: Catch & Release Fishing

Too many direct response fundraisers, many of whom should know better, continue to resort to acquisition techniques that only serve to camouflage the erosion and dry rot destroying long-term donor performance and value. Whether it’s the over-use of premiums or the increasing dependence on cooperative databases (see piece in Direct Marketing News), the amount of […]

Learn More August 9, 2012

Where Does Fundraising Begin?

If you said ‘the donor relationship’ you’d be wrong! Well, not entirely, The Agitator would still give you a B+. But as he answers with respect to all marketing in his post, The circles of marketing, Seth Godin would say … The Product As Godin says: “When the thing you sell has communication built in, […]

Learn More August 7, 2012

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: