Uncategorized - Agitator

Blog Post

How to Map the Donor Experience

The word “mapping” has received a lot of buzz lately. We’re unclear how much of this is real versus PowerPoint fodder and welcome any feedback on this open question. Our latest innovation, TouchPoint Mapping, is, as you can see, an actual map using an online platform built exclusively for this purpose and with the non-profit […]

Learn More March 22, 2012

Donor Segmentation – Why, How and What to Mail.

At DonorVoice we do a lot of segmentation work. In our previous lives we did even more. We love segmenting, slicing and dicing…And yet, we have seen far too many poorly conceived segmentation schemes and an equal number of well conceived ones that never get implemented. Heck, we’ve even participated in both scenarios and hopefully […]

Learn More January 18, 2012

Listening To Agitator Readers

Thanks for the great response to last week’s Agitator reader survey. We’ve gotten heaps of advice to think about … and some nice compliments too. So … who are you? If there’s such a thing as the ‘average’ Agitator reader, you are most likely to be a direct response fundraiser, in ‘the business’ for 4-10 years, […]

Learn More January 16, 2012

Word of Mouth – Who Does It and Why?

Word of mouth is, especially these days, considered the best form of advertising and promotion. It is inexpensive (not free) and often reported by peers as the most trusted, most acted on form of referral. Social media of course has elevated word of mouth or peer influence to rock star status. It is often useful, […]

Learn More January 10, 2012

The Agitator’s Christmas Tradition

Here is The Agitator’s most enduring (only?) tradition. For our fifth Christmas, we urge you to get into a mirthful holiday mood by listening to this unforgettable rendition of O Holy Night. Tom is especially fond of this performance, as it takes him back to Midnight Mass and his Catholic grammar school choir days. We […]

Learn More December 22, 2011

Get the Report Ken Burnett Called Breakthrough and start increasing retention.

The DonorVoice point of view is quite simple; until non-profits focus as much on donor attitudes as they do behaviors, they will never fix the retention problem. And until retention is addressed, non-profits will forever be dealing with a leakier bucket, one that cannot be re-filled fast enough. Why attitudes? Donor attitudes dictate why donors […]

Learn More November 11, 2011

Terrific Motivator … Thanks!

We’ve just been updating our Agitator website … specifically the ‘crawl’ that displays some of our subscribers. We’re so far behind the curve on this (with barely a couple hundred subscribing organizations listed, out of several thousand), so we decided to refresh the list going forward by just updating with newly subscribing organizations. Something must […]

Learn More November 9, 2011

Terrific Fundraising Insights

Mark Phillips of UK’s Bluefrog fundraising agency, is a consultant I’d probably hire. I’ve never met him. I’m going strictly on the quality of his insights as expressed on his blog, queer ideas. His recent post, with the dry-as-toast title, Five things we learned at the IFC, is a treasure chest of little pearls (he […]

Learn More October 27, 2011

Donor Behavior AND Donor Attitudes – How they (should) work together.

Donor Behavior vs.AND Donor Attitudes It seems the vast majority of non-profits define loyalty based on past behavior. And like the financial, Cover Your Ass (CYA) language in all prospectuses reminds us, past behavior is no guarantee of future performance. But neither of course is a purely attitudinal basis for segmenting and understanding your donor […]

Learn More October 24, 2011

The Only Fundraising Question You Should Ask

Two of the biggest technological curses infecting fundraising are Word and Excel. Microsoft might be the archenemy of intelligent fundraising. Word, with its copy and paste function has demeaned and degraded copy to the point where we’ve convinced ourselves that the homogenized gruel we serve our donors is truly good copy. Heaven help us. [I’ve […]

Learn More October 17, 2011

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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Blog Post

How to Map the Donor Experience

Donor Segmentation – Why, How and What to Mail.

Listening To Agitator Readers

Word of Mouth – Who Does It and Why?

The Agitator’s Christmas Tradition

Get the Report Ken Burnett Called Breakthrough and start increasing retention.

Terrific Motivator … Thanks!

Terrific Fundraising Insights

Donor Behavior AND Donor Attitudes – How they (should) work together.

The Only Fundraising Question You Should Ask

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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Commitment System

Donor Feedback Platform™

PreTest Tool

TouchPoint Mapping