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

LFF also solidified the focus on major-gifts strategies and left the ACLU with programs that will sustain it well into the future. And it changed the way the organization sees itself and the way donors see it.

"That's transformative. That's an important, lasting legacy," McKay says. "Now donors see us differently. Their philanthropy matches their passion. We had to believe in ourselves before we could ask donors to believe in us at that level.