For months now, I’ve been sensing the steady rise in Roger’s blood pressure.

I’ve watched two things in particular get him agitated …

First, the glacier-like pace (and that’s me being charitable) with which fundraisers have responded to declining donor retention rates.

And second, not unrelated, the apparent diffidence (again, I’m being charitable in my choice of words) with which fundraisers look empirical data in the face … and walk away from it. Two cases in point, the ‘mail less, make more‘ proposition Roger has been advancing, and his effort to sort out the essence of ‘donor centricity’.

As his blood pressure has risen, his rhetoric has escalated as well, as we’ve seen in a few recent posts (warning: not for the faint-hearted).

The situation has not gone un-noticed by the International Board of Trustees of The Agitator.

Over the weekend the Board held a special session.

They pulled out and re-considered The Agitator’s mission statement: “Nonprofit Fundraising Strategies, Trends and Tips … with an Edge.” The debate centered on the phrase … “with an Edge”. It raged for a minute or two.

I pointed out Roger’s own words regarding the motivation for The Agitator:

“The only threats to our craft that truly worry me are complacency and conventional wisdom. Both jeopardize the best possible performance at a time when nonprofits will be required to perform far more and far better than they have in the past. Ours is a trade that has grown prosperous and self-satisfied. Even for the inexperienced or just plain stupid, there is rapid advancement and substantial financial reward. Why? Because the number of available vacancies for “fundraising” positions far outstrips the available talent.

But even more worrisome in this era of rapid change is the unwillingness on the part of far too many fundraisers, CEOs and Boards to innovate, to take risks and to break new ground.

Fortunately, there is a wealth of new talent, technologies and techniques bursting on to the scene. These are the best antidotes to complacency and conventional wisdom. It’s my hope that in this space we can –together — shine the spotlight on the trends, talent, techniques and technologies that will make us all perform better tomorrow than we do today.

After all, the stakes for the causes and organizations we serve are simply too high to accept anything less.” [Italics mine]

Personally, I marvel that Roger hasn’t given up pushing boulders up the hill. I can only explain his persistence by observing that he is still amazingly passionate about the causes and needs that nonprofits exist to serve, and he holds fervent hope that fundraisers will rise to the challenge!

I noted to the Board that Roger — instead of fly fishing or gardening — had spent days in Washington last week working with a group of nonprofits who are indeed getting it right … and have the data to prove it.

My point to the Board … Even when Roger’s infuriating, he’s inspiring.

I’m pleased to report the Board has extended Roger’s contract. They realized that if they booted him, it would only be a matter of time before they’d simply wind up hiring him back — Steve Jobs like!

It probably helped Roger’s case that the Board also realized it had no real option.

Who else was going to carry The Agitator ball … me?!

[Avoiding responsibility at any cost, I reminded the Board that in my own case, I was known to have told clients to shove off (again being charitable with my words) when I thought they were too dumb or lazy to act on sound advice. And then there’s the matter of my bailing out and hiding in the solace of New Zealand!]

So folks, you’re stuck with Roger and his passion.

The Board did insist on some concessions:

1. He must cut back on caffeine.
2. He must begin daily yoga and/or meditation.
3. He should focus on the winners, not the losers.
4. If he must use the word, he must spell it, ‘arses’.
5. And together, we must take even greater pains to establish the empirical basis for the directions The Agitator espouses.

With respect to the last of these, Agitator readers can expect we will forge ahead on the ‘donor centricity’ and ‘mail less, make more’ fronts by more assiduously adding case studies to The Agitator Toolbox on our website. However, to do that, we are going to prod readers more incessantly to share their pertinent data.

In our small way, we will continue to attempt to dispel some of the ‘alternative facts’ of fundraising.

Tom

P.S. For starters, we’ve added a ‘donor centricity’ category to our archiving & search system (see Agitator home page in the coming days), and will begin to re-tag the dozens of articles we have written on that subject, and add plenty more, to give this subject the prominence it requires.