Major Gifts

As a major gifts officer, the primary question asked is, essentially, “How’s the money coming in?” The finance office needs to know because it can't pay the bills with air. The goal you made also set an expectation that a certain amount of money would come in. So, it is a fair question...

As a fundraising professional, you already know how important your major donors are. Having a dedicated and data-driven strategy to engage and build relationships with major donors is critical to your fundraising goals and success...

Inspiration4 returned from orbit Saturday, raising millions for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the process. Though St. Jude met its campaign goal, it will continue raising money through February 2022...

The University of Massachusetts Medical School is commemorating an unrestricted $175 million donation from the Morningside Foundation — the philanthropic arm of venture capital and private equity firm Morningstar — that will more than double its endowment...

You’re feeling the pressure. You have to reach your goal. You were reminded again last week. Some donors on your caseload are behind. And there is concern that the budgeted funds will not come in...

With 52 of 56 Montana counties classified as medically underserved and health professional shortage areas, per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the philanthropists saw a need that the university’s nursing program could help solve.

I know this is personal. This is about you, how you work and what you pay attention to. And this is part of your work that has nothing to do with strategy, the quality of the donor or what you have to offer the donor...

We have a number of major donors in our database that, because of their age or illness have stopped giving, but over their lifetime have made significant gifts to our organization. I feel like we can’t just forget about these people, but what should I do?...

A meeting started out negatively with the finance person saying that a personal relationship with a donor doesn’t really count – it doesn’t positively affect the retention or contribution of that donor. Now, to be fair, he didn’t exactly say it that way. What he said is that the investment in a major gifts officer (MGO) was not worth the result in revenue in the first two years of the MGOs tenure — and that those donors were better off just being communicated with by direct mail...

Typically, we see clogs in that pipeline in the mid-level range of giving. Donors get stuck at a mid-level point of giving because even though they are giving at higher levels, nonprofits are still cultivating them like a $20 donor. So, the major gift program suffers because you’re not feeding major gifts a healthy diet of qualified major donors...