Major Gifts

I was just a decent major gift officer. I’ve always been more drawn to the data and strategy side, and while I value my years working directly with big donors and had inspiring experiences, I learned pretty quickly that it would not be a lifelong pursuit.

In the capital campaign business, the focus is on raising a great deal of money from a relatively few donors. And it’s all too common for staff members and volunteers to focus their attention exclusively on getting those major gifts.

I titled this post “Robots and Major Gift Officers” to get your attention and to make the point that it would be ridiculous to even consider that a robot could be a major gift officer. But I also want to make the point that in your daily major gift work, you have to guard that you don’t do robot-like work.

If you have ever played baseball, you would be familiar with the term “cycle.” The cycle is hitting for a single, double, triple and home run. These hits allow the hitter to end up at first base, second base, third base or home plate, respectively.

Purpose to examine all of your asks and proposals in the next week or so. And look at the “because” in each of them. Does your “because” have something to do with solving a societal problem? If not, you are on the wrong track.

Some people worry that major gifts will suffer in the years after a capital campaign. But it’s simply not true! Remember, very few things move in simple straight lines. That’s true of human motivation, growth patterns and, yes, even the way people give.

A gala is not major gift fundraising, nor does it really have anything to do with philanthropy. A gala is a way that nonprofits bring in cash—and in rare cases, enough net revenue to justify having one.

Why is there a seemingly mysterious divide between those who fundraise in the higher education space versus those who fundraise in the nonprofit space? Why do so many people feel that there is a bridge between these two worlds that somehow can’t be crossed?

You’ve done everything right. You’ve accepted the major gift principle that not all donors, who meet a financial metric, want to relate to you. You’ve laboriously gone through a larger list of donors who meet your major gift criteria.

It is an amazing thing to watch—truly amazing. Some authority figure casually deciding to hire a major gift officer to chase what Jeff and I would call ghosts and rabbits. It’s wishful thinking at its best...