Online fundraising and marketing - Agitator

Donor retention / loyalty / commitment

Be Careful About Assumptions

We talk a lot about building relationships with current donors, especially in the face of more and more difficult new donor prospecting. Major gift fundraisers, at least the successful ones, are astute relationship builders. And generally the reward is quite apparent. It’s a bigger challenge to move relationship building down the donor pyramid. There’s a […]

Learn More November 17, 2009

Online Advocacy – Health Care Reform

The health care debate has been raging online, not just on Capitol Hill, as this article from ClickZ reports. An entire arsenal of online advocacy tactics have been unleashed, including: Search ads Online videos Facebook presence Online fundraising Petition sign-ups Animated display ads Online games Dedicated websites Targeted action alerts The article gives plenty of […]

Learn More November 12, 2009

So Much For That Theory!

On October 9th I posted I Hate This Study, and predicted that in thirty days it would blow away other posts in terms of open rates. Why? Because, as the neuroscience study it referred to established, negative information and emotions are processed more readily by the brain than positive stuff. So I tested my "Hate" […]

Learn More November 11, 2009

Now Email Is Dead Too

First, direct mail was dead. Now email is dead. Apparently the only channel that’s alive is social media. At least that’s the POV presented by Jessica Vascellaro in a Wall Street Journal article, Why Email No Longer Rules, published last month. She begins: "Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its […]

Learn More November 9, 2009

It Makes Me Cringe

When I read an article like this one in DM News, it makes me cringe. It’s talking about a study by online agency Return Path looking at the extent to which advocacy and arts groups collect (or not) and then use (or not) personal data on folks who sign up for these groups’ e-newsletters. After […]

Learn More November 4, 2009

Handwritten Letters

Handwritten letters … what a concept! I enjoyed this article by Max Kalehoff writing in — of all places — Online Spin! Says Max: "… the growing volume of communications in digital form also drives attention deficit, dehumanization and diminishing returns. It’s a tragedy of the commons when digital innovations, celebrated for their improvement on […]

Learn More November 2, 2009

Trust Is The New Black

Yesterday, we posted some data from Cone regarding the degree to which social media friends and fans used such media to make contributions. By and large, they do not. And the study we cited pointed to the issue of trust as the essential basis of both giving and online relationships. Here is a post titled […]

Learn More October 29, 2009

Trust, Social Media And Fundraising

Cone, an agency known for its expertise in cause marketing, has released some findings from its 2009 study of how consumers interact with brands online. The Cone study looks in part at the role of social media in generating awareness and support for causes. Cone notes that 80% of respondents say that social media provide […]

Learn More October 28, 2009

Distracting Social Media Stats

Although you know I hate to fan your social media flames, here are the latest social media usage stats from the Pew Internet Project. Some highlights: 46% of online American adults are social network site (SNS) users. This figure was only 8% on February 05. Of these, 73% have Facebook accounts, 48% use MySpace, 14% […]

Learn More October 27, 2009

Boldly And With Outrageous Hope

Now that most of my fellow copywriters are focusing on year-end and holiday efforts, I want to share an unconventional but extraordinary appeal I received from an unusual source. Margaret Battistelli is the energetic and skilled Editor-in-Chief of Fundraising Success magazine and, probably like you, I hear from her a lot via emails announcing webinars, […]

Learn More October 26, 2009

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: