Major Gifts

Aubrey McClendon graduated from Duke University in 1981 and was the co-founder of Chesapeake Energy Corp. He became wealthy as a Colorado wildcatter in the oil industry, and he and his wife (also a Duke alum) provided significant financial support to Duke over the years. Unfortunately, McClendon died suddenly in a car crash in March…

A librarian who quietly saved a $4 million fortune passed away and left his entire estate to the university where he worked for nearly 50 years. Robert Morin, who graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1963 and worked as a cataloger in Dimond Library, was known to live simply and loved books, according…

Amid his national anthem protest, Colin Kaepernick feels his patriotism has come into question. "The media painted this as I'm anti-American, anti-men-and-women of the military, and that’s not the case at all," the San Francisco 49ers quarterback told reporters after his team defeated the San Diego Chargers on Thursday. During the game, fans repeatedly booed…

The City University of New York is investigating whether a recent $500,000 donation intended to bolster the humanities and arts at its flagship school may have been improperly diverted. The inquiry was prompted by senior faculty members at the school, the City College of New York, who learned that an account that should have contained…

The better you get at asking for major gifts before you plan a capital campaign, the more successful your campaign is likely to be. And, of course, the more money you’ll raise year-in and year-out. Here are three tips to keep in mind when approaching a donor for a big gift...

When a major campaign begins to languish, it is inevitable that some keys to campaign momentum were either never in place, or have been forgotten or neglected. Here are eight keys to ensure your campaign maintains momentum and achieves its goal!...

It’s hard to watch $38 million melt away. But that’s effectively what Marian University in Indianapolis has had to do. The small Roman Catholic university on the city’s west side secured a very public $48 million pledge from a wealthy donor at the beginning of the decade as it sought to expand with a new…

I remember working for a social services agency where the social workers would often say to me, "I could never do what you do." I’d reply, "Back at you!" Each of us thought the other person’s talent was a mystery because we’d never learned it. And we’d never wanted to learn it. I also remember board members, sitting in a fundraising training I was facilitating and saying, "I could never ask for a major gift as well as you do."...

In December, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), pledging to donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares, worth approximately $45 billion, over their lifetimes to further the cause. Now, the couple is making moves to keep their promise by making the first cash infusion into the for-profit charitable initiative...

Amber Heard is donating the entirety of her settlement money from Johnny Depp to charity, the actress said in a statement on Thursday. "As described in the restraining order and divorce settlement, money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and, in…