The Agitator

We were ranting about using videos for online fundraising yesterday, then lo and behold we found Lucy Bernholz at Philanthropy 2173 pointing us to a contest for nonprofit videos designed to mobilize people for social change. The contest is here at NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, and you ...  Read more

DoubleClick, a leading service provider in the digital/online advertising world, has just published an analysis of response patterns to 301 online ad campaigns running June to September 2006. The bottomline is hugely important for marketers of causes and candidates: Video ads generate at least ...  Read more

Recently Todd Cohen of Philanthropy Journal took to task American Idol for perceived shortcomings in its planned awareness and fundraising initiative, “Idol Gives Back,” scheduled for April 24-25. Idol says it wants to focus the attention of its 26-28 million weekly viewers on the ...  Read more

Other than response to disasters and political campaigns, situations where new donors tend to find you, most online fundraising success has come from mining existing house e-lists. But one of these days, one of The Agitator's readers is going to figure out how to successfully prospect for new ...  Read more

Yesterday we posted on some of the political findings in Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007, just released by the Pew Research Center. Today we'll look at Americans' attitudes about corporations and business. As cause marketers and fundraisers, the bottomline for us ...  Read more

A few days ago I vented on the subject of anonymity on the web. I was particularly focusing on anonymity as a political shield, and in situations where unidentified pundits purport to offer expert advice, evaluations (be they of products or charities), and the like. I'm agin it. And I'm ...  Read more

We spent the weekend immersed in the Pew Research Center's just released Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007. Fascinating stuff. We hardly know where to begin. If your nonprofit is engaged in mobilizing supporters around any cause or agenda whatsoever, there's ...  Read more

There … we've said it. We're reacting to a bunch of things … A recent article in the New York Times, “Write a Check? The New Philanthropist Goes Further,” which opens: Many wealthy Americans are no longer content to bequeath their money to favorite causes in ...  Read more

Yes, anonymity sucks. Whether in the context of … Posting a “Big Sister” Hillary video. Writing an blog “evaluating” charities. Making a “Comment” on someone's website or blog. Sneaking a contribution to a political candidate. Faking ...  Read more

A recent post by Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention reminded The Agitator just how valuable MarketingSherpa is. Gail was touting Marketing Wisdom for 2007, their annual compilation of best marketing lessons. All sorts of marketers submit items about something they learned in the previous year ...  Read more