The Agitator

Yesterday, proffering a core principle of fundraising,  I cited "trust is the new black," a phrase coined by Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. How does a nonprofit build trust amongst its constituents? Here a suggestion drawn from what appears to be the hottest trend in ...  Read more

Yesterday, we posted some data from Cone regarding the degree to which social media friends and fans used such media to make contributions. By and large, they do not. And the study we cited pointed to the issue of trust as the essential basis of both giving and online relationships. Here is a post ...  Read more

Cone, an agency known for its expertise in cause marketing, has released some findings from its 2009 study of how consumers interact with brands online. The Cone study looks in part at the role of social media in generating awareness and support for causes. Cone notes that 80% of respondents say ...  Read more

Although you know I hate to fan your social media flames, here are the latest social media usage stats from the Pew Internet Project. Some highlights: 46% of online American adults are social network site (SNS) users. This figure was only 8% on February 05. Of these, 73% have Facebook accounts ...  Read more

Now that most of my fellow copywriters are focusing on year-end and holiday efforts, I want to share an unconventional but extraordinary appeal I received from an unusual source. Margaret Battistelli is the energetic and skilled Editor-in-Chief of Fundraising Success magazine and, probably like ...  Read more

For those of you who really do want to download Lisa Sargent’s 99 Nonprofits, try this link. My error. Still learning to cut & paste … which could explain why I’m so focused on the basics! Tom SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Speaking Of Back To The Basics!", url ...  Read more

Last Wednesday, I was pretty hard on nonprofits for not getting the basics right with respect to online fundraising, instead using scarce energy and resources to plow into the hottest new thing, like Twitter. That post generated some interesting comments, which I hope you’ll go back and read ...  Read more

No, that’s not Alexandria, Egypt (a fascinating city by the way). It’s Alexandria, Virginia — according to Convio, the top city in America (with population over 100,000) in terms of per capita online giving. Convio’s used online fundraising figures from its clients ($750 ...  Read more

An article on October 13 regarding nonprofits’ online success (or lack thereof) in Fundraising Success began like this: "Nonprofit organizations are resource constrained, as we all well know. According to a 15-question survey Convio conducted between September 2008 and October 2008 of ...  Read more

Getting Attention blogger Nancy Schwartz today announced the 2009 winners of her annual "Nonprofit Taglines Awards" competition. More than 4,800 nonprofit professionals voted on sixty finalists from 1,702 entries. Says Nancy: "The awards program is designed to encourage nonprofits ...  Read more