Search Results for: ask less
Is Your Segmentation A Stereotype?
Those in the East are more communal and interdependent while those in the West assign greater value to individualism. People in North America tend to place more value on being unique and are more inclined to focus on their own positive qualities than East Asians. These are very common beliefs, often promoted by cultural psychologists […]
The Enshittification of Digital Donor Acquisition
It’s no secret, it’s increasingly difficult and expensive finding new donors online. Remember the Facebook ads glory days in the 2010s? It seemed all we had to do was upload a list of performing donors, spawn some lookalike audiences, toss in some photos with the right aspect ratios, slap a good caption on it, then […]
Use Concrete to Get Unstuck
Concrete, precise and specific words or statements make people feel more heard in donor service domains. Here is a study from Jonah Berger showing the big difference in satisfaction and purchase intent tied to word choice as you move up the concrete scale. In donor service world this equates to raising more money without asking […]
The Answer is 42
We’re in the pre-phase of AI and fundraising. The pre-phase, a concept coined by Kevin Kelly in New Rules for The New Economy, is marked by high hopes and grand ambition. Everyone can and does compete, including lots of non-experts. There will be very few winners and lots of losers along the way. Consider, in […]
How Hard Are You Pulling the Rope?
Is your team – agency, charity, agency + charity – the right size? Bigger isn’t better. There’s a strong tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases. This phenomenon occurs in rope pulling and the workplace, it’s called the Ringlemann effect. Ringlemann measured the […]
Jerry Huntsinger is Dead
Jerry Huntsinger, 90, died peacefully early Sunday morning in Williamsburg, Virginia. Along with scores of Agitator readers, hundreds of fans, and devotees we’ve lost a dear and precious friend. We marked his 90th Birthday just two weeks ago with the tribute Celebrating the Wonder and Wisdom of Jerry Huntsinger . Lots of readers weighed in […]
The “Fill it Up” Supporter Journey Approach
Our calendar is 12-months and most of civilization has been using since 1582. These 12 months have a natural, logical basis tied to lunar cycles but having lunar cycles dictate the supporter ‘journey’ for charities starts to quickly lose both logic and reason. And yet, how many charities start with a blank calendar (or more […]
GPT? Yes. Chat-GPT? No.
The number of people professing to be expert in AI or machine learning (and not knowing the difference) is skyrocketing. It’s like the 19th century gold rush with con artists selling worthless mining technology. I’m going to share our experience with GPT for copy and make recommendations. I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last […]
People Are Different But In Predictable Ways
People are different in their motivation and interests and yet the sea of sameness of one-size-fits-all fundraising dominates. The Control ad and a Test ad both going to a single audience; the unspoken assumption is that everyone’s the same. But what if the test failed because it did well with some people but poorly with […]
We Are What We Choose
Are you more outgoing and social or introverted? Are you described by others as being warm, friendly and often helping others? Might people describe you as hard-working, dependable and a planner? You almost certainly had answers for all 3 questions that came naturally and quickly. These are typical descriptors for people and well, you know […]