The Agitator

Judging from the number of "Out of Office" bouncebacks we’re getting this week, I’m assuming that lots of folks are "at the beach." That means they’re missing Steve MacLaughlin’s (of Blackbaud) Netwits webinars this week. One a day, with these topics ...  Read more

In case you headed to the beach early last Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a financial conference that the economy — U.S. and globally — is on the verge of growing again. As reported here in the NY TImes, despite his upbeat tone, he did say the recovery would be ...  Read more

Two days ago, I urged Agitator readers to check out this report on Engagement, which proffers evidence that the most financially successful commercial brands are also the most adroit users of online social media. And I suggested that this same relationship might hold for nonprofits. I love a good ...  Read more

Convio is brandishing a new "fundraising calculator" that claims to compute the future value of your integrated direct mail, telemarketing and online fundraising stream. Says Jordan Viator of Convio: "The tool allows nonprofit organizations to estimate their online fundraising ...  Read more

In this mini-debate from DMNews, three approaches to measuring loyalty are advanced: 1. Lifetime value — the person who buys (donates) the most over the longest period. 2. Share of wallet — the person who devotes the largest percentage of their spend (or donations) in your category to ...  Read more

Here’s an article from Fundraising Success that I set aside awhile back to reflect upon. I’m glad I did. Written by fundraising consultants Tiffany Neill and Lynn Mehaffy, it’s a useful little gem … kind of a "nuts & bolts" Modeling 101 for fundraisers ...  Read more

Steve MacLaughlin of Blackbaud shares results from his firm’s clients for the first half of 2009. From a group of 1,274 clients, online giving is up 22% for the first six months of 2009 over the same period in 2008. Average online gift is currently running at $124.17. That’s great ...  Read more

That’s the question asked by Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions at Blackbaud, in a recent blog post. He’s talking about the fact that, on average, online fundaising appeals get less than a 1% response rate … indeed, the average is less than 0.2%. Steve looked at ...  Read more

Yesterday, in light of declining donor retention rates, we raised the question of whether nonprofits were doing an adequate job of inspiring their donors. Here’s a response from Jay Love, CEO of software solutions provider eTapestry. His firm is participating in the Fundraising Effectiveness ...  Read more

Convio has just published an excellent report on online fundraising trends, together with their advice on how nonprofits can improve their online fundraising programs. This is a "must-read" document, for two reasons: 1) The report is full of stats from a broad range of nonprofits that ...  Read more