Giving Thanks
Chances are there’s not a U.S. Agitator reader online or browsing The Agitator today. Even Tom and I are taking the day off.
You see, it’s Thanksgiving. The preeminent day in the U.S. The one holiday all Americans seem to agree on and celebrate. Even celebrate to the extent of traveling thousands of miles, paying exorbitant airfares or increased gas prices for horrendous road trips, all to be with family members they often despise.
Every U.S. school kid learns that Thanksgiving is a feast day with origins in the Massachusetts colony of the Pilgrims, religious dissidents fleeting persecution in Europe, who purportedly were saved from starvation by the Native Americans who came to their aid that first winter in 1621.
Sadly, not every school kid is reminded that the generosity of the Native Americans on that first Thanksgiving was then reciprocated by a multi-century campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at wiping out those same Native Americans.
As Tom so poignantly reminded us yesterday, no good deed goes unpunished.
But, I digress.
While Americans stuff themselves today — the main dish being turkey and U.S. style football — and falsely vow they’ll never visit their dysfunctional family again, the rest of The Agitator readers should be counting their blessings and sharing them with each other.
To get us started, and as I did last Thanksgiving, I give thanks for:
- Tom Belford who for the past 9 years has had the patience and persistence to read reams of good, bad and just plain nonsense in order to distill from it the goodies he delivers most mornings while this errant sidekick is allowed to rant unheeding of any regular publication schedule.
- Our fellow editors and writers – see the Blog roll on the right hand of The Agitator Home Page — who take hours out of their week to share good and valuable insights.
- The teaching missionaries of our profession — folks like Simone Joyaux, Tom Ahern, Tom Gaffny, Chuck Longfield, Nancy Schwartz, Pam Grow, Lisa Sargent, Kivi Leroux Miller, Gail Perry, Marc Pitman and so many more — who work tirelessly to advance and provide top notch advice to those organizations who can least afford it.
- The heretics and iconoclasts like Kevin Schulman and Josh Wichard over at DonorVoice, and Caity Craver and Ben Miller at DonorTrends, and Jeff Brooks at Future Fundraising Now — all committed to challenging and bettering the business-as-usual approaches in our trade.
- Ken Burnett and the other folks at SOFII who tirelessly and miraculously collect, archive and present a showcase of the best of which our craft is capable.
- And especially for YOU, the oft-agitated Agitator reader who takes the time to read, think, share and comment on our posts — whether in agreement or disagreement. A sure sign of life and hope for the future of our trade.
Each day this activity is a reflection of why we do what we do. We are blessed with:
- The countless volunteers who give up their days, evenings, weekends and vacations and sometimes their very lives to practice what the organizations they work for preach.
- Those very special pros and volunteers who today are bringing kindness, compassion, medicine, shelter, hope to the horribly ill in West Africa, the beaten down, the tortured, the frightened, and the destitute millions of others around the world — all so easily ignored and forgotten.
And, Tom and I give thanks for:
- The under-appreciated folks called fundraisers, who so often without resources or experience bravely and tirelessly tackle the task of rolling the rock up hill to meet often-impossible goals they had no voice in setting.
- Those rare and few board members who do not check their brains at the board room door and have the insight and guts to challenge the status quo.
Most of all we especially give thanks for:
- The millions and millions of donors who month after month, year after year, invest their compassion and trust in making our world a better place.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Roger
P.S. On whatever day you’re reading this, as you count your Thanksgiving blessings, please share them in ‘Comments’ with us.
11 responses to “Giving Thanks”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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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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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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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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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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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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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Roger,
Thanks for your post on this day of Thanksgiving to all those donors who do so much and the devoted professionals that are making a difference for the people they help through their fundraising efforts daily.Best to all on this special day when we are thankful for those that care to make a difference! Have a great Thanksgiving.
Roger, thank you for this post on an early morning — more quiet than most. A perfect time to reflect and give thanks for all of us that can’t think of living our lives any other way except by helping to power missions that change the world through donor gifts! To all of us who have embraced this life, a true calling — THANK YOU!
Happy Thanksgiving to you! (See, this US reader is still starting the day with Agitator!)
I’m very grateful for all that you both give us – smarts with passion.
Nothing settles a overstuffed stomach better than a dose of The Agitator. It’s how I start my day … every day. And I am SO thankful for it and you, Roger and Tom. I eagerly look forward to each rumbling issue. Thank you for focusing the fundraising revolution. The world needs a lot of saving. Governments are walking away. Great causes and their voluntary philanthropic armies are, I firmly believe, our best hope now. Thank you for coming along at the right time.
Clearly, some of us are online today…. And I’m actually agitating. I was reading the NYT on line. Read the op-ed about Ferguson by Charles M. Blow. And wrote my own Simone Uncensored blog today. It’s the longest blog I’ve ever written. It’s an email to Charles Blow and Nicholas Kristof thanking them for their op-eds about the racist U.S.- and how us whites just don’t get it.
I’m angry and sad. About racism and homophobia and class and sexism. And so I wrote about it in my unintended Thanksgiving blog. It’s posted in social commentary, of course.
And I’m thankful for the people that I know who recognize their own unearned privilege — like race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. And speak out and write and fight for equity. Thank you. Thank you for agitating.
Roger and Tom:
Thank you for the words of “thanks” this Thanksgiving. I start each and every morning with your blog and Jeff Brook’s and I am so appreciative of what you bring to the conversation about fundraising and philanthropy.
Looking forward this next year for your blog to being educate, entertain, anger at times and most of all inspire me in chosen profession.
Hope to see you in Alaska someday, we have some very thankful development professionals up here.
Thanks guys for the Thanksgiving post! I read it yesterday morning as I prepared to celebrate some friends here in Swaziland.
But since, Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday here, I took advantage of the non-holiday here to have someone here do some thanking to our donors in the USA.
So last night (our time, morning in the USA) I had an about-to-graduate student call our top 50 active donors to simply say, “Thank you! I’m graduating from African Christian College on Saturday a changed person — thanks to you!”
It felt a little risky to be calling donors on a major holiday morning. But I thought: “We’re calling to thank them — surely it won’t be that bad!” So we tried it.
I got several gushing emails late last night from donors who talked to the student and were so impressed and blessed by the call. They were also equally excited to get on our website and find Emmanuel’s photo and essay that posted on our website yesterday morning (that was quite unintentional but worked!).
The student said everyone (except for one person) was very excited about the call and wanted to talk — so it took quite a while to make it through the list because they wanted to talk. I’m excited it seems to be received well.
Now, I’m looking forward to seeing how it might help strengthen these donors even more.
Finally, I’m thankful for you guys at The Agitator — along with your friends Jeff Brooks and Tom Ahern — who are always pushing me (even though you don’t know me!) to do more, do better, and do good.
Thank you!
Roger and Tom, I’m thankful for the day I stumbled onto The Agitator. For all the wealth of experience and wisdom and the variety of opinions that feed us daily, through the Agitator and through the many professionals, books and articles you connect us to. And for the millions of people- donors, volunteers and professionals- who work to make this world a better place. Thank you!
Thank you – this is a wonderful post. Happy Thanksgiving!
A belated but heartfelt thanks to you, Tom and Roger. For being there, five days a week, for inspiring us, for challenging us, for always making us think. You are a gift to the sector.
Pam Grow and I apparently took the same number of days off. 🙂 Guys, all I can say is: You are equal parts light in the night and swift kick in the pants. It’s an honor to learn from you every day. Thank you, now and forever.