Cover Story: The Art and Science of Fundraising

What to do in a situation like that? Easy, Bennett says — back off.

“Our donors tell us which way to take them,” she adds.

Once a donor jumps into the major-gifts category, however, the brakes go on and the group meets to plan very specific strategies.

“Once someone becomes a major donor, everything stops,” Bennett says. “The strategy has to be managed and highly personalized. At that point, that person has been touched by ADA in many different ways, and if it’s a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, we could lose them.”