A recent ACLU campaign beefed up its major gifts and planned giving

"I know our donors care about making a difference. I'm not a reluctant fundraiser because I can see the difference we've made in America because of the money we've raised and the people we've convinced to support us," Romero says.

But tenacity aside, Romero believes the leader of a nonprofit organization must have unwavering belief in and passion for the cause, and that passion has to trickle down through the staff to donors. That, he feels, was the key to the ACLU overcoming its inferiority complex and, subsequently, the lapse between its supporters' passion for the organization and their giving habits.