Uncategorized - Agitator

Demographics

Laws, Sausages, and Third-Party Data

More and more fundraisers are falling in love with Big Data. Some use it to create “personas” in hopes of better segmenting their files. Others employ it for wealth screening and prospect research. Whatever use you make of it every data point should move your organization at least one step closer to the donor. Yet […]

Learn More September 19, 2018

The Curious Case of Kimberly Ellinger

We have a phantom member of our family. When we moved into our first house, one of the people who sold us the house was Kimberly something-or-other. We immediately started getting mail for Kimberly Ellinger – her first name, our last. Our best guess is that a mailer assumed she got either married or divorced, […]

Learn More September 17, 2018

Fundraisers I Fear: Part 2– Insufficient Knowledge of Basic Information

In Part 1 I urged all of us to become “expert novices” –fundraisers who have knowledge and confidence but are capable of maintaining a seed of doubt that they may be wrong. Of course, the building blocks of knowledge, skepticism and curiosity must be stacked on top of the rock-solid granite foundation of fundamental fact. You […]

Learn More September 14, 2018

You saw my ad where?

The violinist played for almost an hour at DC’s L’Enfant Plaza at the height of morning rush hour. He cleared $32.17. This wouldn’t be remarkable except that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the great classical masters who can normally command up to $1000 a minute for his playing. He was playing on a […]

Learn More September 12, 2018

The Fundraisers I Fear

The fundraisers who scare me the most are the ones who are convinced they’re right. Why? Because these are the folks most unlikely to ever change. It is their blind adherence to conviction and convention that endangers the future of their organizations. Unwilling to challenge the status quo of their own efforts they’re most likely to […]

Learn More September 10, 2018

RESEARCH UPDATE: Making Your Match Less Bad

I’m temporarily giving up. We’ve talked about how: Lead gifts work better than matches Lead gifts work waaaaaay better than matches when you can use the lead gift to cover overhead per Gneezy and colleagues Challenges also work better than matches Matches only work for active donors – they have no impact or negative impact […]

Learn More September 6, 2018

RESEARCH UPDATE: An Online Test of Donor Preferences

A couple weeks ago, we reported how donors preferred to make their preferences known. We even featured a test from the American Diabetes Association that found that asking a donor’s priority mission area increases revenue by 11.6%. While evangelizing donor preference, I got the question “what about online?” After all, we are taught online to […]

Learn More September 5, 2018

The New Agitator

After 11 years and 3,191 posts The Agitator has a new look and a new address: agitator.thedonorvoice.com, instead of theagitator.net. I’m using this first post on the new site to summarize the changes, additions and, most importantly, the guiding philosophy going forward. Why the Change? We’ve increasingly been drawing on the research, testing and results of pilot […]

Learn More September 4, 2018

YEAR END: One Year Ends; The Next Begins

Hopefully, this week has prepared you for your year-end giving season. You’ll get your communications set and you’ll watch the donations come in. And when, at 10:27 local time, you hit your online giving goal, you will celebrate the New Year in a way that makes you not want to give up until at least […]

Learn More August 31, 2018

Who do you want on your file?

Everyone who wants to be there. There! That was simple! Join us next week when we explain why water feels wet. (It’s a liquid). Yes, it sounds simplistic. But we violate this simple premise by not asking supporters how they would like to get communications from us. This step has a few key benefits: It […]

Learn More August 30, 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 […]

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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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Demographics

Laws, Sausages, and Third-Party Data

The Curious Case of Kimberly Ellinger

Fundraisers I Fear: Part 2– Insufficient Knowledge of Basic Information

You saw my ad where?

The Fundraisers I Fear

RESEARCH UPDATE: Making Your Match Less Bad

RESEARCH UPDATE: An Online Test of Donor Preferences

The New Agitator

YEAR END: One Year Ends; The Next Begins

Who do you want on your file?

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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