Blog provides fund-development advice, news, trends

The Agitator is a blog for direct marketing fundraisers and nonprofit execs and boards, which offers data on donor trends from proprietary studies and analyses, white papers and case studies on philanthropy, direct mail and online fundraising successes; a continually updated library of need-to-know reports and studies, relevant lessons from the world of commercial direct and relationship marketing; and opinions on who’s "got it" and who’s not from fundraising experts Tom Belford and Roger Craver.

"We’ve been reasonably successful at this craft starting in the late ’60s," they write. "This experience has shaped a distinctive point of view on most nonprofit marketing and fundraising issues. But heaven knows we don’t have a monopoly on wisdom and insight. There are plenty of other smart non-profit marketers out there, and our goal is to engage them (you), and occasionally to provoke, challenge, annoy, excite or amuse."

The focus of the Agitator isn't nuts and bolts. "Rather, our mission is to help us all think more clearly, innovatively, and productively about emerging trends…to challenge the trite and traditional…to help us all take a fresh look at ourselves and our organization’s core marketing assumptions and strategies…and to build a dynamic online community of kindred, curious spirits in the process."

Lately, Belford and Craver have been fielding questions about "in a world that’s falling apart…the bottom-line question is: What’s the best course of action in this final, and generally most important quarter of the fundraising year." In response, they offer The Agitator’s 7 Survival Tips for 2008.