The Agitator

OK, summer is over, you’ve had a week to get back into work mode, and so The Agitator is ready to offer some heavy lifting this week. We’ve been saving up some important stuff on social media. First up is a new report from the Pew internet Project, called The Internet & Civic ...  Read more

At the risk of signaling my age, I’m pleased to report that all those Saturday mornings of watching Mr. Wizard on black & white TV paid off. I just scored 100% on Pew Research Center’s science quiz. Mr. Wizard would be proud! You can take the quiz here. Of  greater ...  Read more

The Pew Internet Project has released new figures on home broadband penetration in the U.S. Their key observation is that broadband penetration is increasing most dramatically in population segments that have traditionally lagged — older Americans, lower income households and rural ...  Read more

At the heart of usage of online social networking is one’s attitude toward sharing personal information. Here’s a chart from a new study of the ‘Gen Next" (Gen Y, born 1977 or after) by the Pew Research Center. 62% of under-30s believe that sharing personal information ...  Read more

Regular readers of The Agitator will know how impressed I am with the research and analysis provided by Pew Research, especially with regard to online trends, media habits, and the confluence of media and politics/advocacy. But you don’t need to rely entirely on The Agitator to get this ...  Read more

Here from Pew Research is — for my money — the definitive report on the role of the internet in last year’s election. Below are some topline findings from Pew’s report, but you should treat this as "must read" if you are serious about engaging folks online around ...  Read more

The Pew Internet Project has come up with a new typology for users of information and communications technology (ICT). Pew sorts folks into ten groups, distributed within two main buckets. The chief determinant of which bucket you fall in is your attitude toward and usage of mobile ICT ...  Read more

Always "must read" for me are the reports from the Pew Internet Project on internet habits by generation. Here’s the latest, from which I’ve extracted a few factoids. Internet use by older generations: Age 55-59 - 71% Age 60-64 - 62% Age 65-69 - 56% Age 70-75 - 45% Over 75 ...  Read more

Yesterday I offered a hypothetical New Math for Fundraisers scenario where very committed donors (only the 15% who are self-described missionaries) are matched with an easy-to-use tool (assuming, per Pew Research, that one-third use sites like MySpace or Facebook) to conduct a whopper of a personal ...  Read more

Here’s a fundraising scenario and projection for you to play with. Assume your nonprofit has 100,000 active donors, 15% of whom are "missionaries" — that’s the proportion of donors who, in our DonorTrends survey, consider themselves active recruiters for at least one ...  Read more