A kinder, back-to-basics approach to donor relations amounted to a 30 percent increase in contributions for D.C.’s Heritage Foundation.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“It was two days before the end of the year, and I happened to be around to pick up the phone call,” Walter says. “It was a donor who wanted to remain anonymous, but she said she was considering making a major stock gift. For tax reasons, she had to get it done by the end of the year. We were not her first choice; in fact, we weren’t her second choice. But she had reached me, and I had in front of me a sheet that our grants person had put together with the exact instructions on how to electronically transfer stock.