The Agitator

Recent surveys on consumer confidence and expectations about the economy will separate optimistic fundraisers from the pessimists. Typical of what I’m seeing is this survey released last week by Harris Interactive. It reports that only 24% of Americans see their own household’s ...  Read more

I don’t know what set him off, but marketing maven Seth Godin recently posted an article titled Magic beans, TV and the web. Here’s the kernel: "On the web, there are countless marketers just standing around waiting for someone to hand them the magic beans. And that’s the ...  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

Here are two recent articles from Marketing Daily describing the current state of play of cause marketing in the U.S. In the first, sponsorship giant IEG projects that $1.55 billion will be spent on cause marketing in 2009. IEG cites survey data saying that 41% believe companies should increase ...  Read more

Here’s a great story from the Washington Post about young people — ages like 11, 12, and 13 — and their fundraising activities. Zach Bonner set out to help homeless kids in his area of Florida. Now his Little Red Wagon Foundation has generated 27 trailer trucks of aid, received a ...  Read more

We have an interesting discussion underway on The Agitator regarding the utility of social media today for nonprofit fundraising. "Go slow" seems to be the prevailing sentiment. I urge you to flick through this week’s posts and comments if you haven’t yet done so. But ...  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

Here is ENGAGEMENTdb, a study of the top 100 global brands (as rated by Business Week/Interbrand) and their use of social media, done by two firms that specialize in the space, Wetpaint and Altimeter Group. I’ll jump right to the conclusion: "… the most valuable brands in the ...  Read more

For some nonprofits, fundraising can be quite sensitive to the headlines … a natural disaster here, a Supreme Court nomination there. I once had a client castigate me, rightfully, for "sitting on" an urgent appeal opportunity until Monday, triggered by an event that occurred the ...  Read more

I was reading this article from Online Spin about the competition between Nielsen Online and comScore as to who has the biggest and best online panel for measuring online behavior. This is the sort of thing that market researchers can get quite passionate about. And indeed, given that marketers ...  Read more