The Agitator

I promise … after today, we’ll give the donor pyramid a rest. Except that next week Roger will pull together some thoughts on the underlying issues raised this debate of the past few days on The Agitator. For now, Ken Burnett gets the last word on The Pyramid, and discloses the true ...  Read more

The debate continues. I hope you’re reading the comments on our Agitator posts this week. But whether it’s a donor pyramid, trapezoid, ladder or bucket, no one is going to donate, at any level, whatever tactics  fundraisers throw at them, without effective messaging. Now, most ...  Read more

Here’s yet another view on Donor Pyramidgate … the debate over where major donors actually come from … and how to depict their evolutionary path graphically. It appears fundraisers take their geometric preferences quite seriously! As you can see here, Kristin McCurry of MINDset ...  Read more

Yesterday’s Agitator post on the donor pyramid (Is it a lie?!) prompted quite a response, so we’ll stick with this debate a bit. Commented John Sauve-Rodd (a Brit): "Personally I find the donor pyramid of no practical use, but as seasoned US and Canadian fundraisers told me in my ...  Read more

Mark Rovner at Sea Change Strategies recently wrote that the "fundraising pyramid is a lie." He argues that most major donors are recruited into a nonprofit on a peer-to-peer basis, rather than being cultivated up the donor pyramid from initial small gifts. From my experience, I think ...  Read more

Last week we reported some data from online firms Blackbaud and Convio regarding 2009 online fundraising. To refresh you on the highlights: Online fundraising revenue was up 46% over 2008 for all groups in Blackbaud’s universe (over 1,700 nonprofits), with 35% of groups reporting no ...  Read more

Here is a fairly detailed examination of online activity by age, prepared by Pew Internet Research. What I like about this slide presentation is that a wide range of internet activities (25 in all) is parsed against six different age cohorts, from Gen Y to GI Generation. What I don’t like ...  Read more

Frankly, I’m sick and tired of  the dismissive comments with which many in our trade dismiss the money raising accomplishments of the American Red Cross in this Haiti disaster. Sure it’s a ‘big brand … sure it gets top media attention … sure the President and ...  Read more

Yesterday the Chronicle of Philanthropy was reporting $210 million raised in the first six days after the Haiti earthquake (for comparison, $457 million was raised in the same timeframe after Katrina). The lead sentence of their story caught my eye: "Contributions continue to pour in for ...  Read more

The Chronicle of Fundraising is doing an excellent job of monitoring giving response to the Haiti disaster. Here is their report as of January 16: "So far, donors have contributed more than $150-million to major U.S. relief groups, a Chronicle tally finds. By comparison, such charities had ...  Read more