What makes an activist different from a donor?  Too often the former is thought of as a lead-gen, name sourcing exercise to ‘convert’ them to the latter. Activists and donors are different.  And while activists often donate that initial act of activism (e.g. the lead-gen petition signing) should not be thought of as a donor stepping stone.  Rather, it should be treated as an indicator of  the type of person you’re interacting with, one with very different beliefs and emotions from the person who will donate but not take activist actions. And if you hope to make your activis ..read more

Jack Trout was a TV ad man who helped pioneer the brand positioning concept and famously quipped, “If your assignment is to change people’s minds, don’t accept the assignment.” Sage advice.  A huge study of TV effectiveness on changing people’s attitudes and beliefs about social issues found it’s a waste of time and money.  The study was a randomized experiment with 31,404 voters who saw three weeks worth of interest group ads on either immigration or transgender non-discrimination. The participants completed surveys pre and post exposure measuring a variety of attitudes and beliefs ..read more

             More than a decade ago before fleeing to New Zealand, Tom Belford, then co-editor of The Agitator dismissed my enthusiasm for a budding new media tool—the Podcast.             With a swipe of his keyboard he proclaimed, “Podcasts are the over-hyped Segways of the new media world. They’re for eccentrics like Roger, who undoubtedly will attempt to defend himself in a lame comment … keep in mind, Roger was a big fan of 8-track audiocassettes!”         &nb ..read more

You can talk about donor experience but unless you’re regularly measuring it than that’s all it will ever be, talk. But what’s the return on investment?  Is it a just-believe thing?  Good and no, respectively.  These are experimental results comparing asking for feedback after a customer (donor) interaction versus not.  The “not” is likely your organization’s standard operating procedure. The experiment had several groups, Control.  Did not receive a request for feedback after the customer interaction. The received request for feedback group is broken into three natu ..read more

Do you prefer noisy and ambiguous or clear and explicit?  Doubt anyone would say the former but the sector, ironically, relies almost exclusively on the noisy and ambiguous kind of data. The person, Clicked – did they click out of idle curiosity or with intent?  Did the context (e.g., time of day or mood) impact the click decision? Donated online/offline – was the giving guilt induced or internally motivated?  Does the person have intention to give again?  Was the reply form confusing? We rely heavily on mouse and pen movement with little to no understanding of why. We’re ..read more

The World Economic Forum named misinformation as the top global risk, higher than war.  I think it’s fair to say the WEF/Davos crowd ain’t exactly a representative slice of America or any other country.  Maybe they know more than us, maybe their ranking is useful or maybe they are just parroting the times. Note the explosion in “misinformation” search.   And yeah, generative AI didn’t exist as a commodity in 2016 but the internet and social media sure did.  Speaking of 2016, researchers analyzed the actual impact of the Russian attempts to influence the election.  ..read more

Many nonprofits proclaim their love of humanity but behave as though they can’t stand people. You need only look at their basic fundraising practices:  like failure to properly thank donors…failure to seek or abide by donor preferences….failure to provide feedback mechanisms…failure to treat donors as anything other a bucket in the l RFM Sea of  Impersonal Segmentation. The result? Poor donor loyalty and retention rates. Low lifetime values.  Substantially reduced income. Of course, it doesn’t –and shouldn’t—be that way. 40 years ago, Botton Village, a UK charity introduced a “d ..read more

Today Agitator readers in the UK are going to the polls. Electoral fireworks. On this side of the Atlantic U..S. readers witness celebratory pyrotechnics today as Americans celebrate our Independence Day, called such because “Amxit” is a mouthful. At Agitator/DonorVoice HQ we focus on the fundraisers – as ever, the real unsung heroes of the Revolution. Urgent need.  In 1780, the Continental Army surrendered Charleston to the British Army, essentially ending the existence of an organized army in the south (guerilla warfare continued).  The loss was blamed largely on lack of provisions ..read more

Giving USA reported charitable giving increased by 1.9% but after adjusting for inflation, it’s down 2.1%.   The cost side of your P&L has likely gone up, whether charity or agency. Is this a macro, negative externality you’re stuck dealing with or might this be a time to raise “prices”? If you raise your ask amount and explain it and it’s perceived to be fair, it increases satisfaction.   So, what influences fairness judgements? If it’s because of increased costs then it’s perceived as more fair. If those costs are externally imposed then its tilts further into the fa ..read more

The industry trendline is well worn – fewer and fewer people giving.  The saving grace has been those left giving more.  This is hardly a winning strategy. Your only path to sustained growth comes from increasing the percentage of prospects that know you.  There’s a huge chasm in likelihood to donate and lifetime value between “know you” vs. ‘heard of you”. Those who “know you” will cite your brand name when open-endedly asked to name a charity in your category.   Those who’ve only heard of you can’t.   The lifetime value of the former is 50%-150% higher. Sin ..read more