Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity. Today's question comes from a nonprofit employee who wants advice on how to encourage their Development Director to take meetings with major donors. Dear Charity Clairity, [...]
Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity. Today's question comes from a fundraiser who wants advice on ways to stay in touch with potential donors who have major donor potential. Dear Charity Clairity, [...]
For the last three years, I’ve devoted virtually every day to the challenge of training professionals and especially volunteer fundraisers to overcome the fear of asking for gifts for their favorite nonprofits. There are a variety of ways to raise private money including grant writing, special events, telethons, posting on [...]
I drive a Prius, so don't get it twisted -- there is also no judgment here of 25 year-olds (I've been one). But the no judgment piece is exactly the point here. I was at a happy hour networking event. Remember those? How we dreaded them and now they are... thought of [...]
In “Who Gets to Be in Your Nonprofit’s Major Donor Portfolio” we looked at how to qualify a major donor prospect to be in your portfolio. Today we’ll look at how you’ll allocate your limited time among all these qualified prospects. First, a reminder: One full-time person can only handle [...]
When you’re determining who to cultivate for your major donor portfolio, do you simply look at everyone who gave more than $1,000 (or whatever your major gift amount is) and dump them all into your portfolio for the year? I confess: I used to do that. I didn’t know any [...]
Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity. Today's question comes from a fundraiser who needs advice on best practices around acknowledging and recognizing major gifts. Dear Charity Clairity, Good news! We've received the [...]
I spent 4 years at United Way of Greater Los Angeles and 3 of those years as a major gifts officer raising $800k+ my first year and $1-2.5M+ each year after that. The end of the year was such a busy time. Holiday parties (remember those! What I wouldn't give [...]
A recent report unearthed key areas where small changes by major gift officers to tweak major donor approaches could reap large benefits for their nonprofits. “Transforming Partnerships with Major Donors,” by the Leadership Story Lab, which works with companies and organizations on messaging, delved into what motivates the wealthy to [...]
At some point in your nonprofit career, you may have heard about a multimillion-dollar gift being given to a charity and thought, “5 million dollars? What a generous gift!” Maybe from where you sat it looked effortless like a big gift fell out of the sky into the fundraiser’s lap [...]
Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity. Today's question comes from a major gift fundraiser who isn't sure how to persuade their boss to excuse them from tasks (like events) that aren't priorities [...]
Are you trapped on the small-dollar spin-cycle, spending all your time on fundraising activities that can’t fully-fund your organization and help you grow? If you’re going to get out of it, you need to prioritize the fundraising activities that give you the highest ROI. That’s right, I’m talking about major [...]