Why Agitate?
The Agitator is for direct marketing fundraisers and non-profit execs and boards.
We bring you the latest data on donor trends from our own proprietary studies and analyses; white papers and case studies on philanthropy, direct mail & online fundraising successes; a continually updated library of need-to-know reports and studies from third parties throughout the marketing & fundraising biz; relevant lessons from the world of commercial direct and relationship marketing; and our opinions on who’s “got it” and who’s not.
We’ve been reasonably successful at this craft starting in the late ’60s. This experience has shaped a distinctive POV on most non-profit marketing and fundraising issues.
But heaven knows we don’t have a monopoly on wisdom and insight. There are plenty of other smart non-profit marketers out there, and our goal is to engage them (you), and occasionally to provoke, challenge, annoy, excite or amuse. If your chief concerns today are choices of paper stock for your next direct mail package… or whether long letters really work better than short letters…or what’s the latest trade gossip, you won’t find much help in our posts. (However, some of our favorite links will direct you to sources with considerable “nuts & bolts” insight.)
Rather, our mission is to help us all think more clearly, innovatively, and productively about emerging trends…to challenge the trite and traditional…to help us all take a fresh look at ourselves and our organization’s core marketing assumptions and strategies…and to build a dynamic online community of kindred, curious spirits in the process. So let’s have at it!
As brilliant and omniscient as we think we are, there will be occasional gaps in our information and logic, to say nothing of annoying biases. We invite you to help fill those gaps and correct our course. Naturally, you’re always welcome to comment on a post. But if you’re interested in contributing facts, opinion, news, insights, analysis or simply your own rants regarding marketing and fundraising for non-profits on a more regular basis, we’d love to hear from you.
Behavioral Science Q & A
Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, capturing donor information can be helpful for stewardship like newsletters, thank-you letters, impact updates. But how you ask matters. Forcing full data capture introduces friction that can significantly depress conversion, many donors may simply abandon the process. Beyond the friction itself, required fields also shift the emotional experience […]
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Unlike holidays that everyone already knows, Giving Tuesday is a created event. Many donors recognize the name but not the exact timing, so referencing it becomes a helpful cue. It serves as a reminder and taps into social norm activation (“everyone’s giving today”), which boosts response. However, we still want it paired with the mission, […]
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When a subject line leads with the match (“Your gift matched!”), it risks triggering market-norm thinking: the sense that giving is a financial transaction rather than an act rooted in values, identity, and care. This shift reduces intrinsic motivation and, over time, can weaken donor satisfaction and long-term engagement. It also makes the email indistinguishable […]
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There’s no evidence that QR codes suppress mid-value giving; all available research suggests they either help or have no negative effect. In fact, behavioral and usability research consistently shows the opposite: reducing friction at any point in the donation process increases completion rates and total response. And that has nothing to do with capacity and […]
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What you’re experiencing is very common. Resistance often isn’t about capability, but about motivation quality. If board members feel pushed into fundraising, that triggers controlled motivation (low quality motivation) i.e. obligation, guilt, or fear of judgment, which often results in avoidance. Instead, we need to create conditions for volitional motivation (high quality motivation) by satisfying […]
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That’s a really thoughtful question, and you’re not the first to raise it. Many of our clients have been cautious about placing the ask at the very end. To address their concern, we’ve tested both approaches, and the results are clear: when the ask comes last, even if that means it appears on the second […]
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