The Agitator

Ellen Church at Craver, Mathews, Smith & Company sent us some heartfelt thoughts after reading the NY Times editorial on the latest government figures on income disparity in America. Commenting on the reality that in 2006, after six years of sustained economic growth, 36.5 million Americans ...  Read more

With apologies in advance for our more proper readers … Some fundraising ideas are just soooo good all we can do is stand back and applaud. Here's one from The Nonprofiteer, one of our favorite “in-your-face” bloggers … “Or how about … making thousands ...  Read more

You wouldn't blitz a major direct mail acquisition package to hundreds of thousands of prospects without testing, would you? I hope not! Then why would you offer a website — probably your major gateway to the public (and your members) these days — without testing its effectiveness ...  Read more

Unfortunately, your nonprofit might have literally only one or two interactions with a new donor or member before they tune out and disappear forever. So first impressions indeed matter, whether delivered by mail, telephone or email. In most cases, your second opportunity to make a “first ...  Read more

A new study commissioned by IBM reports that, for the first time, people are spending more hours per week in front of their computer screens than watching TV. A lot of these hours are spent increasingly on watching online video. According to comScore, 136 million folks watched over 9 billion video ...  Read more

I noticed in Fundraising Success Advisor this summary of a well-done white paper, Accountability Matters: Without Public Trust, Nonprofits Wouldn't Exist. The paper, downloadable here, was authored by Liz Marenakos at Blackbaud. It deals with the fundamentals of ethical financial management ...  Read more

Facebook is rapidly becoming the social networking site of choice for middle-aged, well-off, professionals. If your nonprofit doesn't yet have a Facebook face, maybe you should be thinking about it. Facebook is adding 150,000 new users a day. Here are two articles to stir your pot. A recent ...  Read more

Beginning with a critique of email spam from the standpoint of effective copywriting, direct mail wiz Denny Hatch winds up reminding us of the most fundamental principles of the copywriting craft. For example: The letter is all about “You” copy — it's a highly emotional ...  Read more

Traditional media has always been used to support the National Philanthropic Trust's Breast Cancer 3-Day, a 60-mile-walk fundraiser. Typically, TV, radio, billboards and newspapers would be used to build awareness, and direct mail would then “close the sale” in terms of signing-up ...  Read more

At the recent DMA Nonprofit Conference, Jennifer Donahue of NARAL presented her strategy for successful integration of direct response fundraising channels. As reported by Fundraising Success, one element of NARAL's fundraising credo is: “No mercy shown the donor (be vigilant and ...  Read more