Major Gifts

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...

It’s a safe bet that all 798 nonprofits that received transformational grants from MacKenzie Scott and her husband Dan Jewett, totaling close to $9 billion, believe in miracles. They all were beneficiaries of the most awesome display of philanthropy in size, speed and flexibility that we’ve ever seen in history...

The Ford Foundation recently announced an initial $250 million investment into the Justice and Mobility Fund, which supports organizations striving to boost economic mobility and strengthen the life paths of those associated with the criminal justice system since, oftentimes, they are denied economic opportunities decades after an original offense.

In fundraising, a donor parts with money when he or she perceives that the “price” being “paid” is worth what happens when the money is used. The donor is giving a sum of money for something, and it is right for him or her. What is right for the donor as it relates the amount you propose to ask for?...