The Agitator

We’ve talked about word-of-mouth (WOM) as the top driver of today’s consumer decisions. Here’s a report from Online Media Daily on an interesting Yahoo study that has attempted to drill into WOM behavior. It notes that 76% of all WOM still occurs face-to-face … however ...  Read more

It’s not exactly like we were sitting around wondering what to do with our free time (other than reading Chaucer), but when the request came from our colleagues over at DonorTrends to contribute to their new blog named Fundraising Action,  we leaped at the opportunity. We thought about the ...  Read more

Last week, in a piece entitled Is Your Favorite Charity Spying on You?, the Wall Street Journal’s “Smart Money” column set off a mini-firestorm in our trade over the use of data mining for prospect research and donor analytics. Among the tidbits of raw meat tossed into the WSJ piece ...  Read more

For five centuries, from the Phoenicians to the global exploration of the 15th century Spaniards the conventional wisdom of navigation rested on the belief that the Earth was flat. Venture farther than the known oceans and you would fall off the edge of the Earth into the mouths of dragons, the ...  Read more

Over the weekend Tom sent me a link to an ABC News piece entitled “Secret Donor”. Diane Sawyer sets forth an absolutely charming and moving story  about a Lake Forest College alumna named Grace Groner who died in January  at age 100 and left the college $7 million.  ...  Read more

As I outlined this “Where” segment of The Agitator’s Who-What-Why-When-Where series, I began by concentrating mostly on the proper selection or integration of  fundraising channels –online, offline, mail, email, phone, tv, print. The “Where” to send the ...  Read more

“The most poorly written mail I get is from people who want my money.”                       –January 26 post signed by “Disgruntled Writer” The lesson I’ve ...  Read more

In the process of answering the essential “who”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “why” questions in planning a fundraising program or campaign, most of us begin with the identification of the prospective audience. In short, “Who&rdquo ...  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, in light of Target Analytics’ report on the continuing decline in both donor acquisition and donor giving, I asked “Why do so many organizations persist in doing the same old, same old year after year hoping that results will suddenly improve?” At a time when every ...  Read more