After 11 years and 3,191 posts The Agitator has a new look and a new address: agitator.thedonorvoice.com, instead of theagitator.net.

I’m using this first post on the new site to summarize the changes, additions and, most importantly, the guiding philosophy going forward.

Why the Change?

We’ve increasingly been drawing on the research, testing and results of pilot projects conducted by the team at DonorVoice. It was their research I drew on in preparing the book Retention Fundraising: The Art and Science of Keeping Your Donors for Life.  And it is their applied research on behalf of actual nonprofits and campaigns that has more and more been part of The Agitator’s voice and content. Think major topics like “donor commitment” …” donor identity” … “donor preference” …” segmentation” …” behavioral science” and on and on.

We are now formalizing and extending that relationship in order to enrich our content and the range of skills needed to produce it.

To that end, Kevin Schulman, the Founder and CEO of DonorVoice has been named Managing Editor.  Nick Ellinger, VP for Marketing Strategy at DonorVoice, has been named Editor.  Dr. Kiki  Koutmeridou, Chief Behavioral Scientist at Donor Voice will head the major, new “Ask a Behavioral Scientist” feature that I’ll describe later in this post.

I’ll continue as Editor-in-Chief and persist in aggressively and unapologetically pressing for change in a fundraising world that is stubbornly resistant to it.

What’s changing

Agitator is now free. That’s free with a capital FREE. When you read more than three blog posts on the site, you’ll be asked to subscribe with your email address to insure you continue to receive TheAgitator and DonorVoice email updates.

If you currently subscribe –and most everyone reading this post already does—you may be asked once to enter your login information.  Just use the same login info you used for the “old” Agitator.

We will be reducing the number of posts.  If you read The Agitator every day, thank you for your service.  Quite frankly, not everyone does, and some readers tell us there’s “too much” to keep up with.  So, we’re reducing the number of posts each week to three.

Of course, if there are breaking news items or alerts we’ll add those to the weekly mix.

We are adding new features.

• Meet the DonorVoice Nudge Unit.

Nudge units of scientists specializing in human behavior have emerged in corporations and governments with great success. Given that our own sector is beset with problems it has never solved (e.g. low conversion rates, poor retention etc.) it’s time the nonprofit sector had a nudge unit of our own.

Behavioral Science has become a hot, sexy topic in the trade and on the conference circuit.   Our goal is to give readers more than a cursory glimpse or set of fascinating parlor tricks.  Rather we seek to go beyond mere call-outs like “add some social proof” by applying the body of knowledge out there to practical issues like “onboarding”,  donor journeys, ask strings, etc.

The team of scientists you can see here represent a first for our sector; a panel of qualified, subject matter experts, who are devoting themselves to partnering with you to get beyond ‘best’ practice to better results.

We’ve set this section up so you can easily access “Challenges” (Acquisition, Average gift, Consent to Marketing, Lapsed Reactivation, Regular Gift Conversion, Retention, Upgrade, 2^ndGift conversion) and find the behavioral science principles that apply.

Call to Action:  I hope you’ll take advantage of this new feature and start asking questions.

• White Papers, Webinars and Research Results.

We’ve also added white papers, webinars, and other content.  To start, we’ve posted some of our most popular and important content.  We’ll keep you informed as we add to this treasure trove.

Call to Action: If there are topics that interest you that don’t appear in that section, please email Nick ( nellinger@thedonorvoice.com)

Which bring me to….

• Editorial Suggestions and a Review Board.

The concept of creating a charity-only review board and/or some mechanism for surfacing content of particular importance to those who work in nonprofits has not yet been translated into reality. But it’s a high priority twinkle in our eye.

We’ll chase and formalize the idea if there’s sufficient interest.

Call to Action:  If you have thoughts on candidates for an editorial review board and/or on how to best surface ideas for content please drop me a note. (Roger@theagitator.net)

What won’t change.

• The quality of the content. 

You can argue whether maintaining our quality is good or bad. One thing is certain: we’re making these changes so it’s more in depth and backed by even more research and testing.

• The Archives and  Search Function. 

The thousands of Agitator posts covering the past decade through today are available in the new Archives section.  It’s organized by Category (donorcentricity, innovation, segmentation, etc.) and if you can’t find the category try the search function at the bottom of the Archives page or at the top of the Home Page.

• Toolbox and Reports.

We’ve not been shy about promoting helpful services like TrueNCOA, TrueDeceased, TrueAppend, various DonorVoice and DonorTrends products and services.  In addition, we’ve featured valuable content like M+R’s Benchmarking Report, The Blackbaud Index, SOFII content, etc. etc. etc. when appropriate.

We aim to continue this practice when we believe it helps solve a genuine problem for readers.

• We will continue to Agitate.

Nick told me a story of a higher ed conference he went to a couple weeks ago.  He said someone came up to him and asked if he wrote for The Agitator.  He answered “yes”, deeply gratified at having been recognized in the wild.

She then said “You are an idiot about demographics!”

He thanked her for reading; spirited debate then ensued.

We have been wrong. We will be wrong.  We may be wrong about something at the very moment you read this.  But what we will not be is silent, complacent, or comforting to the comfortable stuck in the status quo.

And we will always be open for vigorous debate.  Steel sharpens steel.

Thank you for reading. Thanks for challenging the status quo with us.  We hope to make you better the same way you make us better.

Roger

P.S.  First and foremost, please let us know any thoughts, concerns, complaints you have by sending an email to Nick (nellinger@thedonorvoice.com).  To practice what we preach, we will be doing a survey about the new site shortly, but as with many web launches, we want to get any and all bugs out of the way first.

Speaking of bugs…. Did I mention this is a new site?  We are counting on you to point out what are likely to be the many flaws that need polishing and ambiguities that need clarification. Again, please drop a note to Nick (nellinger@thedonorvoice.com).  He’ll share it with the crew and we’ll all work harder to serve you better.