The Agitator

The UK-based Management Centre recently scored 57 nonprofits on their ability to innovate … a seven step process as conceptualized by the Centre: Ideation — idea generation Integration — cross-pollination of ideas Information — external scanning & sourcing Selection ...  Read more

If you’re in the biz of targeting online ads for member acquisition, fundraising or issue persuasion, here are two articles that illustrate the data-driven capabilities that exist. The first deals mainly with the Republican Party’s use of voter registration data to help target GOTV ads ...  Read more

Chuck Pruitt of A.B Data thinks the dire predictions of the death of direct mail are groundless. And he’s angry they seem to get such credence (though certainly that’s not the case in the annals of The Agitator … just Search our site using "direct mail’!) ...  Read more

Illustrating the point we made yesterday about the impact of increased broadband (i.e., high speed) internet access, comScore has released the latest monthly figures (April ‘09) re online video viewing. Key points: An impressive 79% of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online ...  Read more

The Pew Internet Project has released new figures on home broadband penetration in the U.S. Their key observation is that broadband penetration is increasing most dramatically in population segments that have traditionally lagged — older Americans, lower income households and rural ...  Read more

Last week, The Agitator extolled the virtues of usability testing for nonprofit websites, specifically with regard to online fundraising effectiveness. Our inspiration was a substantial study with this focus by Jakob Nielsen, the guru of web design. In case you need further convincing ...  Read more

Effective marketing begins with knowing your audience … whether it’s choosing mailing lists or appropriate media for your message, or crafting the message itself. Without a very clear understanding of the person, customer, or donor you are trying to reach, speak to and elicit a ...  Read more

Breaking news from reliable Agitator sources … Realising that social nets like Twitter and Facebook have yet to establish a viable business model, but are essential for promoting democracy (at least abroad), the US Government has decided to purchase the two networks outright. Said President ...  Read more

Happy to hand the megaphone today to Guest Agitator Janice Christensen, for her thoughts on the powerful mobilizing — and through that, fundraising — role of Twitter. Janice is the former Director of Campaigns of Amnesty International USA, a board member of the Torture Abolition and ...  Read more

Many thanks to Abny Santicola at Fundraising Success mag for pointing us to the latest usability testing on nonprofit websites by design guru Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen is the best at this. His methodology is to observe in realtime how visitors actually use websites, read e-newsletters, etc. I wish ...  Read more