Fixing Bored Boards and Other Major-Gifts Musts

"There is an ultimate responsibility in the lay people of the campaign to make the case and speak to people they know and show the way as volunteers for the kind of concern they hope their colleagues will show and turn those into major gifts," Davis adds.

With the ever-growing number of nonprofits in existence and the ever-increasing competition for dollars, Davis says what's key for his company when working with an organization is to determine what it is about the organization that's unique -- "what it is that they're doing that they can claim is special and appealing to potential donors and would set them apart from the crowd," he adds.