We've heard it from volunteers, and even from other advancement professionals: "I'm too friendly with her to ask her for a contribution." It is well-known that most people feel uncomfortable asking a friend for a gift.
Larry Raff
Opportunity is everywhere, and not just strictly in the form of donors and dollars. Sometimes it wears a mask, and it hides in plain sight. But most development professionals have the innate skills to find it, learn from it and use it to help with future challenges. Here are two examples of what I mean.
I just read about Harvard receiving another eight-figure gift, substantially adding to its huge endowment coffers. And here you are, a development officer for a venerable institution, wondering what it is about Harvard that enables it to habitually attract such large gifts. As a consultant, I encounter this wonderment from my clients regularly. So I’ve begun asking the people who make those large gifts.
