It’s easy to feel excluded from grantmaking opportunities during a time of crisis. Perhaps you feel that your mission doesn’t align with the prevailing narrative. Or perhaps you’re worried that you will alienate donors with an ask. Either way, hesitation is causing many nonprofits to miss out. Don’t let hesitation [...]
Individual giving is the backbone of a diversified fundraising program, with over 70% of all charitable gifts made by individuals. And, major gifts are the ultimate in transformational engagement. What many may not realize is that major gifts can be done in any sized fundraising shop. The misnomer that you [...]
What about counting the ways for your donors this year? Or at least for a subset of your donors who have the potential to give you the lion’s share of your philanthropy? We talk a lot in the sector about donor love and gratitude, but how do we practice it? [...]
In Part 1 of this two-part series on handling donor resistance we covered some of the reasons hesitations and objections are normal, and nothing to be feared. Rather, they present an opportunity to get to know your donor prospect better and potentially forge an even stronger relationship. There is one [...]
Sometimes when working with major donor prospects they say “yes” right away. More often, they don’t. You may not get an outright “no” (in fact, usually you won’t), yet you’ll get a hesitation or what we call major donor resistance. As in: No, not now. No, not you. No, not [...]
Recently, in “New Year’s Resolution: Prioritize Major Gifts, Beginning in the Donor Database," I wrote about why you need to focus your resources on major gift fundraising this year. Not so much from businesses and foundations. But from individuals. Because that’s where the lion’s share of all philanthropy comes from. [...]
It’s that time of year when resolutions are often made. Whether or not you’re a fan of the resolution-making practice for you, personally, there’s something to be said for striving to be better. Especially when others (beneficiaries of your mission) are relying on you! I’m going to suggest a few [...]
In the fourth quarter of each year the National Philanthropic Trust releases their annual Donor Advised Funds Report. This is significant for every nonprofit engaged in fundraising to take notice because donor advised funds or DAFs for short, are truly changing the landscape of major gift fundraising and therefore [...]
Do you have a major gift program, but not a planned or legacy gift program? Do you focus time and energy on planned giving prospects but not major gift prospects? Or perhaps you have the latter but not the former? Do you wonder if there’s really a distinguishing difference between [...]
Exercise and fundraising. What do these activities have in common? At first glance, very little. But they take on a special meaning for a client of mine named Thea Wood, founder and President of Backstage Chats Foundation, a wonderful organization doing transformative work around music and gender equality. She groups [...]
Have you fallen into the trap of making your major gift fundraising template complicated or hard to use? I want to encourage you that it doesn't need to be that way. You may be surprised to know how often I meet directors who are spending more time developing plans than [...]
The most under-acknowledged major gift fundraising truism: It’s about the relationship, not the “ask.” If you want your donor to dig deep, they must be inspired. Your success depends less on how well you ask for gifts and more on how well you’ve taken your major gift prospects on a [...]