The Agitator

I’m seeing more and more marketing articles these days that emphasize relationship building and seriously engaging “best” customers. Here’s an example from Seth Godin, where he discusses Fans, participants and spectators: “Likes, friendlies and hits are all ...  Read more

Having just watched The Netherlands eliminate Uruguay (justice being served IMHO), I moved on to reading fundraiser Mal Warwick’s latest newsletter. In particular, an article by Tom Ahern titled We don’t care what our donors think of us caught my eye. Tom talks about a recent ...  Read more

The recent e-letter of donor loyalty specialist Lisa Sargent describes how the Atlanta Union Mission builds relationships with its donors. AUM provides emergency food and shelter, residential recovery programs and transitional housing for men, women and children. Lisa’s article focuses on ...  Read more

In the case of many non-profits the much-vaunted “Fundraising Pyramid” too often resembles an hourglass.  Fat on the ends, skinny in the middle. So I was particularly pleased to see Nicole Wallace over at the Chronicle of Philanthropy recently tackle the subject of middle donor or mid-level ...  Read more

I was reading this article on effective email messaging, the gist of which was … make it relevant via personalization. Now there are a variety of ways to personalize, especially in (but not limited to) the online environment — using the donor’s location to tailor content, keying ...  Read more

Roger made an off-hand comment in his recent keynote presentation to the Fundraising Success Virtual Conference & Expo. He noted what he thinks are the two most important questions donors ask of a nonprofit: 1. Will my contribution make a difference? 2. Did my contribution make a difference? ...  Read more

comScore, a leading measurer of the digital world, reports that 64% of US internet users now pay at least some of their bills online. This is up a sharp 19 points since one year ago. And 52% use automatic bill pay, up 10 points. This is good news for US fundraisers, especially use of ...  Read more

Go ahead, make a commitment! That’s the advice of David Kravinchuk at the FLA Group, a Canadian fundraising consultancy. David argues that few donors these days give out of a sense of duty or obligation or blind trust, as older generations did. Today’s donors want to see results. If ...  Read more

Seth Godin did one of his trademark "short but sweet" — and provocative — posts the other day, titled, No New Customers. Here it is in its entirety … What if a rift in the time-space continuum changed the universe and it was suddenly impossible to get new customers ...  Read more

Starbucks uses its "Passion Panel" to come up with new products and line extensions. This is a group of Starbucks’ best customers who respond to online queries in return for perks. [What, you say, Starbucks doesn't have enough variations on the Frappuccino already?!] Maybe your ...  Read more