Major Gifts

You know how Richard and I are always talking to you about reporting back to your donor the impact their gifts are making, right? And the reason we do it is that the lack of reporting back is still the No. 1 reason why donors stop giving to you...

Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, inspired the largest gift ever made to public higher education: $550 million. It was made anonymously by a couple who is looking for nothing in return – not even recognition – to benefit themselves. It’s a gift with very few restrictions, made outright over the span of 10 years to the university, its medical school and athletics...

“I don’t understand why the donor stopped giving,” the major gift officer (MGO) said. “They seemed so interested in what I had proposed last year. They gave and they have been silent ever since.” Stop and analyze each part of this statement...

Extending a partnership that began in 2013, Kraft Heinz Company Foundation announced a major donation to an international hunger nonprofit organization to help alleviate world hunger. The $12 million donation will be dispensed over the next three years to support the Rise Against Hunger’s local food procurement efforts, sustainable agriculture projects, and packaging and distribution of meals...

If you could do your work as a fundraiser from a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, you would love your job. In our western, white male-dominated culture in North America, the view we grow up with is that there is not enough, and, therefore, we should get as much as we can for ourselves before someone else gets it...

“Last year more than one million quarter-inch drills were sold – not because people wanted quarter-inch drills, but because they wanted quarter-inch holes.” This often-quoted concept by Theodore Levitt sums up exactly what your focus should be as a major gift officer (MGO). Donors want to solve problems. They do not want to hear all the wonderful things about your organization or process...

In major gifts, there is nothing better than a good finance person to be your partner. If you have a good one, pour on the love. They need affirmation just like you do, and they do not get enough of it. If you have a bad one, try to win them over through education, information and appreciation...

If you can build trust, plus expand a personal relationship with a donor while also having the knowledge of their gift capacity and areas of interest, a possible layering can occur. In my context of layering, it is securing a major gift or pledge in one area while asking them for a second gift or pledge in another or same area...

Below is a perfect example from our colleague Diana Frazier on how she advised a MGO to use a news story to support a major gift ask.

Whether you are in social services or any of the scores of nonprofit causes that exist today, you can feel deeply about it.