Major Gifts

I was recently talking to Susan, a development director for a regional nonprofit, and she was lamenting that she had another gala to put together. Even though this gala takes an enormous amount of time and effort from the staff, the executive director and the board want to keep it going because it brings in almost half of their revenue each year. Susan wasn’t upset about all the time and effort it took to pull it off each year, but the fact that the revenue generated by the event was really in transactional gifts, not mission-oriented gifts...

Looking back on the philanthropic efforts of well-heeled donors over the past 12 months, it turns out that 2016 was a big year for charity. The number of big gifts last year far outshone those of 2015. By “big gifts” I mean megagifts, or charitable donations of more than $100 million. According to a recent…

Most fundraisers spend an inordinate amount of time and energy worrying about making the case for their organization. But a far more productive undertaking is to get to know your major donors—particularly why and how they want to give. Find that out and you’ll have a sense of what you should ask them for and…

What is it about nonprofit boards, leaders and staff who so easily catch events fever and lose their way on thinking objectively about this topic? If that sounds familiar—if hardly any argument or reasoning will dissuade your leaders from organizing an event—then make the best of it by doing the following...

Charles Feeney concluded his 35-year philanthropic career last month the same way he started it—with a $7 million donation to his alma mater, Cornell University. This gift mirrors a donation of the same size in 1982—Feeney’s first donation to the University—which launched the Cornell Tradition, a program that awards 500 fellowships each year to Cornell…

If you or someone you know is either looking for an MGO position or just started in one, I’m going to give you a road map for what to do in your first 60 days. If you follow this road map, you will not only start out your position on the right foot, but you will also give your manager a sigh of relief and, ultimately, comfort your donors. There are two things you need to concentrate on...

I was in a meeting once with the top finance people and management of a leading national charity, and I just could not get them to see that they were losing money—that the donors at the top of their donor pyramid were giving up to 40 percent less than those same donors gave the year before...

2016 is ending not completely without marvel for me. Two great things happened last week. First, on Dec. 16, the family of Canadian philanthropists Larry and Judy Tanenbaum donated $20 million to create the Tanenbaum Open Institute at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. Inspired by open science, these donors understand that researchers will be able…

If you have ever read about or asked a great player from any sport what inspired him or her, they always talk about a coach that was

Several years ago, a news piece on a poll by U.S. Trust and Phoenix Marketing gave us interesting insights into the giving of the wealthy and clues on how to unlock their giving to your organization. Those findings are still true today. But let's add to the list of reasons the wealthy don't give more...