On Friday Tom announced that high on his recommended 2015 ‘To Do’ List for fundraisers is getting up to speed with online video storytelling.

I’m putting the somewhat less glitzy but fundamentally essential task of continuing education, reading and learning on top of mine.

Frankly, anyone with the goal of becoming an expert fundraiser or even just a competent one simply has to devote hours and hours to reading, listening and learning.

How many hours? Some behavioral scientists and journalists claim it takes 10,000 hours of practice to reach ‘expert’ status. Others say far less than 10,000, but the requisite study and practice time still numbers in the thousands.

My advice? Stop worry about counting hours and just get started.

I’m especially interested in the resources and opportunities available to fundraisers in smaller organizations with severe budget limitations on conferences, seminars, and even publications.

Fortunately, we work in a field that’s filled with a cornucopia of FREE, GOOD, and VALUABLE content. So from time to time Tom and I will serve up some recommendations. We urge you to check ‘em out.

Donor Loyalty and Donor Communications. These subjects should be high on your 2015 learning list. On Wednesday, January 14^th Bloomerang and The NonProfit Times will host ‘BloomCon’. This all day conference is packed with great content.

While online registration has ended you can — and should — signup to receive a free recording of the conference.

When you’ll do you’ll be treated to three top and true experts in donor loyalty and communication. Dr. Adrian Sargeant (speaking on Donor Retention), Tom Ahern (speaking on Donor Communications) and Kivi Leroux Miller (speaking on Digital Marketing.) This is one dynamite trio, so sign up free today.

More Than Tactics. Having a quiver full of tactics, techniques and the ability to jockey a spreadsheet doesn’t make anyone a fundraising expert. So much more is involved. Like an understanding of governance, fund development, board development, and some unifying principles that anchor all this.

I recommend you start working your way through the fascinating and carefully curated array of goodies you’ll find on Simone Joyaux’s blog, ‘Simone Uncensored’.

Pay particular attention to and root around in the blog’s Resource and Learning Center. There you’ll find a treasure trove of important goodies including thoughtful job descriptions for CEOs and Development and Marketing Directors … ‘must listen’ podcasts … and even a terrific section on how to distinguish mere opinion from true expertise.

In All Modesty. In addition to the great stuff you get every weekday in the Agitator posts you’ll want to take full advantage of the great content available in our archives.

Whether you’re working on a PhD thesis or just want to boost the bottom line of your organization, you should become familiar with the great research goodies built into The Agitator website.

• Search Function. At the top of the Home page there’s a box marked ‘Search’. It enables you to type in questions, key words or whatever’s on your mind and will pull up the relevant Agitator posts on that subject.

• Categories. We’ve organized 3,200+ Agitator posts going back eight years into 30+ Categories to make it easy to find what you need. You’ll find this accessory on the right hand side of the home page, brilliantly indicated as ‘Categories’.

There’s great stuff in the Agitator’s attic of archives; you’ll want to get familiar with it.

• Let’s say you’ve about had it with the Communications Director who insists on spending $250,000 to hire a branding consultant and you know that’s insane. Well, just go to Categories, type in ‘Branding’ and you’ll find 101 posts on the subject.

• Or, suppose your board’s gone a bit nuts and insists you dump direct mail and take up online fundraising instead. Categories to the rescue. Here you’ll fine 535 posts on what’s hot – and NOT – about ‘Online Fundraising’.

• And for that perennial favorite ‘Acquisition’ you’ll find 275 posts on what’s working in direct mail, what’s not. And 35 of these posts are a part of a special series on truly understanding ‘Acquisition’.
• Of course, because you’re a sophisticated fundraiser and understand that ‘Acquisition’ is just one side of the coin, you’ll want to get up to speed on ‘Retention’. Again, just go to Categories, type in ‘Retention’ and you’ll find 245 posts on that fundamentally important subject.

• Agitator readers are not only discriminating, they’re smart and opinionated. So, you’ll want to follow the comments that generally appear in reaction to each post. You can even set your computer/device to track the thread of comments on any particular post.

• Blog Roll. Also on the Agitator home page, again on the right column, is a listing of blogs and resources we think are top notch. We often reference them and sometimes even steal from ‘em. You should be aware of them and even put them in your news reader. We won’t be jealous. Promise.

One of our goals in 2015 is to keep you informed of great, free stuff to fuel your curiosity. You see, curiosity leads to fact-finding and insight. And this in turn leads to change and growth. To new ways of doing things. To becoming an expert.

As the American author Dorothy Parker put it: “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”

What can The Agitator do to help spur curiosity and learning? We’d love to hear from you.

Roger

P.S. Although we’re into the new year, 2014 is still a fresh memory. We thought you’d like to see what our compatriots over at 101 Fundraising determined to be their top 10 blog posts of 2014.