The Agitator

Back at the beginning of November, Roger published a post urging fundraisers to progress to The Age of Donor Conservation. In the relative quiet of the holidays, I urge you to reflect on his message. Observing that "donors are precious, not limitless," Roger argues: "Successful ...  Read more

Here’s a thoughtful essay from fundraiser Ken Burnett on the "death" of direct mail. Actually, Ken emphasizes (and The Agitator agrees) that what really matters is the message and how well it’s crafted … whatever the medium used to deliver it. Here’s an excerpt ...  Read more

The Agitator has few traditions at this point. But here is one of them. For our third Christmas, we urge you to get into a mirthful holiday mood by listening to this unforgettable rendition of O Holy Night. AudioPlayer.embed("audioplayer_1 ...  Read more

I hope you’re not giving your online fundraising team time off next week.* As Stephanie Strom reported recently in the NYT, citing data from Convio, a phenomenal spike in online giving occurs at year-end … literally December 31st. Here’s what she says … "New data ...  Read more

My post last week on Britain’s plans to go "cheque-less" by 2018 generated a lot of comment (some publicly posted, some private emails), so I thought I’d summarize some of the key points made. First of all, it’s true. The Payments Council, a banking industry group in ...  Read more

In a comment on The Agitator, Jim Toscano of the Minneapolis Heart Foundation says that checks will no longer be used in Britain in nine years. And he asks: "What effect would it have on our fund-raising process if donors didn’t have a check to use to convey funds?" Fascinating ...  Read more

Here is a terrific comment on yesterday’s Agitator post from Andrew Kramer describing how his organization, Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) in Houston, builds cultivation into the guts of their program … and the enormous benefits reaped. He was taking me to task for treating ...  Read more

I’ve been hoarding some recent posts by Seth Godin that are especially pertinent to fundraising. Yesterday I talked about a post where his message was, in effect. don’t ask for money on the first date … cultivate, then ask. I suggested that his dictum might apply in the ...  Read more

Marketing maven Seth Godin wrote The First Transaction, an interesting post about the need for cultivation to precede any ask for money. It’s a short post, so I’m reproducing most of it here … "Digital transactions are essentially free for you to provide. I can give you ...  Read more

Regular readers know I urge "restraint" with respect to social media fundraising … in the sense that I believe there are higher priorities if your goal is to raise money today. But I received a message recently from Mandy O’Neill at Charity Dynamics, an interactive ...  Read more