Search Results for: feedback
Thank You: 2019’s Most Popular Post
For the next two weeks –until everyone’s back from the holidays or recovered from year-end exhaustion– we’ll re-run some of 2019’s most popular Agitator posts. This year’s most popular and comment-provoking entry was titled (or mis-titled) Thanks, But No Thanks. The post reported on a study of thank you calls to 500,000 public broadcasting donors […]
A Christmas Carol, part 2
We at the Agitator have had an exclusive opportunity to talk with one of London’s leading philanthropists, Ebenezer Scrooge. He talks about his giving patterns, criteria, and where he sees the sector going. NE: Thank you for joining us today. As I understand it, you started your giving about five years ago. ES: Five years ago […]
Q: Is there any evidence that shows whether a name for your monthly donor program improves acquisition and retention? Does it foster a sense of exclusivity and belonging? I’m not sure I would be able to get an accurate or honest answer if I were to ask this question directly of our donors.
I don’t have any hard evidence on this. I’m not even sure if anyone has ever tested the exact same program with and without a name so we can tell. But here are some thoughts: 1. Yes, a name might improve the monthly donors’ sense of belonging, but so could the label WWF Supporter, which […]
The Hidden Benefits of Showing Impact
The perception that your donation is going to make a difference i.e. your perceived impact is another key driver of giving. That’s why it’s going to be featured prominently in our Behavioral Science Symposium this coming Monday and Tuesday. Several talks will show you how you could use impact information and how you could increase your […]
I Hold You In Contempt!
It is one thing to have contempt for your donors and constituents. It’s another to show them you have contempt for them. The former isn’t recommended (see: every previous Agitator post); the latter is fatal. People fear executives and board members because they can fire you. Donors can fire executives and board members by not giving. […]
Neglected Treasure
Nick’s post on How Asking Affects the Askedemphasized the importance of requesting feedback directly from the donor and explains why that feedback is so important and so valuable. There’s another form of feedback and I’m afraid in our highly automated, often impersonal processes it’s been lost: the comments donors write on their response forms or […]
Donors At the Break Point
There’s a new trend in customer service – AI-assistance. Companies like Walgreens and AT&T are using your personal data to match you with the right customer services representative. And they are using something called the “break point” to walk right up to, but not over, the line where the customer will leave . They do […]
Scarcity Is The New Cool
Last week Jeff Brooks, in his post How scarcity focuses your donors on your fundraising , noted the power of using “scarcity” in fundraising. He cites the “scarcity” that exists in matching gift funds where there’s only a certain amount of money available and only a finite amount of time to meet the match There’s […]
The Real Limited Resource
The real limited resource isn’t money. Sure, budgets are tight for most. But if you found a magic box where you put one dollar in and got two dollars out immediately, I’ll wager phrases like “hiring freeze,” “unbudgeted expense,” and “budgeting cycle” would be thrown out the window pretty quickly. (Also, you’d have to decide […]
Thanks, But No Thanks
A new study strongly questions the near-universal assumption that saying “thank you” and showing “impact” is the silver bullet for improving supporter value or increasing second gift conversion. Take a deep breath. Now, read on. Titled Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence, the study has spawned lots of debate […]