The Agitator

You’ll recall that we’ve raised the issue of where the use of social media fits into the overall fundraising priorities of nonprofits. We’ve now "closed" our online survey asking your opinions on the subject. Here are the responses to our three questions. First we asked ...  Read more

Here’s a fairly basic but useful article on designing effective web landing pages, from web consultant Tim Ash writing in eMarketing & Commerce. Covers the waterfront from navigation architecture to fonts. But what I really liked was a link there to another article, Turn Right on ...  Read more

From Smashing Magazine, here are some excellent "best practices" prepared expressly for nonprofit websites. It’s a great resource for your web development team … even if that team is just you! They also offer their "20 examples of great nonprofit sites" (all ...  Read more

I think we can all agree that today’s workhorse of online fundraising is outbound email appeals. Any dissenters? If your nonprofit is in that biz, here’s an Email Testing Guide you’ll find helpful. It’s from Portland (OR) interactive agency eROI. Their 32 tests cover ...  Read more

Recently, The Agitator has done a string of posts on social media … perhaps more attention to this subject than we normally devote in a concentrated period. So we get these two comments (among others): From Jim : "I am not surprised that I have the first comment on today’s blog ...  Read more

All of our postings to date regarding nonprofits’ use of social media have dealt with the possibilities of these platforms for empowering, engaging and "unleashing" your donors, members and activists. But there’s another side to this. What guidance should you give your staff ...  Read more

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recently did a study of online fundraising at more than 550 colleges, universities and independent schools. What fundraisers at these institutions reported is appalling. There appears to be very little understanding in the sector of ...  Read more

Nancy Schwartz, our friend at Getting Attention, is running her now-annual "best nonprofit tagline" contest. It’s fun to see the "best" and, well, "not so best" out there … and learn from both. Here from Nancy are the details for this year’s ...  Read more

Our previous posts this week have been pretty positive about social media, their penetration, and their potential marketing (and for us, that means fundraising) contribution. Here are some additional views. Take a look at them and then give us your opinion in a quick three-question Agitator ...  Read more

Here’s yet another agency white paper on social marketing … this one, from Serengeti Communications, addresses the challenge of measuring social media impact. Everyone from marketing veteran Seth Godin (see his recent Clout post) to the newest hire on your web team (just walk down the ...  Read more