Breaking Out of the Status Quo

Why I Hate the Donor Pyramid

All pyramids are lies: They have a dishonest scheme named after them. They will not keep your razor blades sharp or apples fresh. They messed up the four food groups. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs isn’t really true (there are fundamental needs, but there isn’t a hierarchy and people pursue different “level” needs simultaneously). Even the […]

Learn More June 27, 2018

Why I Hate Sugarcoating Issues

I was looking for studies that had been done on what type of images are effective in nonprofit direct marketing.  So I headed over to Google Scholar and searched for “use pictures fundraising appeals.” You would have thought I was searching for snuff films.  Here are some of the titles of journal articles that faced […]

Learn More June 26, 2018

Rage Donations: Give Before You Explode!

Trump’s politically-inspired human rights horror show featuring state-sponsored kidnapping of refugee children and the torture-by-trauma of their imprisoned parents has triggered a tsunami of rage –and rage giving — worth noting, As was the case after the president’s announcement of the Muslim Ban and his other post-election actions, a flood of  responses –financial and in-kind– […]

Learn More June 25, 2018

Pairing metrics for fun and (non)profit

On Tuesday, I talked about how Simpson’s paradox means you shouldn’t use just overall retention as a metric.  Rather, you want to pair it with subgroup metrics so someone doesn’t achieve their retention goals by cutting off acquisition. I’ll generalize from that.  As Newton would have said if he were a direct marketer, each metric […]

Learn More June 22, 2018

Who are your disaster donors?

We often talk about donor identities that make someone more valuable or easier to acquire, whether it’s direct connection to a disease organization, medical professionals to organizations that help sick kids, those who receive services, or many others. But what about the donor identities that make someone less valuable?  Yes, they exist.  And they are […]

Learn More June 21, 2018

What About People Who Don’t Answer Donor Surveys?

When you are in the business of asking donors about themselves and customizing their donor journeys based on that, you almost always get the question: “But what about those folks who don’t answer the survey?” There are couple of answers to this.  The first is: keep asking.  If there’s a datum that you need to […]

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Are You a Modern or Medieval Fundraiser?

Donors are changing far faster today than most of the organizations they give to.  Their expectations are rising at the very moment their trust and loyalty are declining. Unfortunately, far too many nonprofits fail to understand this reality.  As a result they’re woefully unprepared to cope.   Few organizations understand why their donors give… few bother […]

Learn More June 20, 2018

What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Retention Rate

You’ve just made a wise decision: you are investing more in both donor-focused retention efforts and new ways to bring in the right donors for your program.  Surely, your file will grow and your retention rate will increase. But when you look at the stats a year later, your file has grown.  But your retention […]

Learn More June 19, 2018

Get Your Millennial Audience Off My Lawn, Part 2

Back in January, I argued that generations were a flawed construct and demographics a poor way to segment.  In particular, the Millennial mythos seemed a mix of wishful thinking and harrumphing from previous generations. But since I posted that, there have enough “Millennials are doing X” think pieces (using the term “think” loosely) that it’s […]

Learn More June 15, 2018

The risks of cut-and-paste

Our fearless leader, Kevin Schulman, was on the Raise + Engage podcast with Steve MacLaughlin of Blackbaud last week.  Listening to the episode (there doesn’t seem to be an audio option on the page, but I’m assuming you can find a podcast), one thing that struck me was Kevin’s statement “There ought to be massive […]

Learn More June 14, 2018

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