Major Gifts

Mark Zuckerberg will put 99 percent of his Facebook Inc. shares, currently worth about $45 billion, into a new philanthropy project focusing on human potential and equality, he and his wife said Tuesday in a letter to their newborn daughter. The plan, which was posted on the Facebook founder and CEO's page, attracted more than…

A check made out for $500,000 was dropped in a Salvation Army kettle over the weekend in Rosemount, Minn., a startling act of generosity that a couple said was their way of saying thank you. The Salvation Army said the donation made Saturday at the Cub Foods on County Road 42, just east of Shannon…

You could argue that a nonprofit needs money, talent, publicity, gifts in kind, etc. But why does it need these things? To get its mission done. And that’s a point that most people on the inside of the nonprofit forget, that the whole effort is about the cause, not the organization. This topic is one that every major gift officer and every manager related to major gifts must get straight in order for major gifts to be successful. Here are the major areas where this goes wrong...

John Paulson’s $400 million gift to Harvard earlier this year touched off a new chorus of an old complaint: Why don’t the rich make mega-gifts to charities that help the truly needy? That, in simple terms, is the question at the heart of new research by Bridgespan, the nonprofit consultant that works with both philanthropists…

California regulators and consumer groups say insurance giant Blue Shield of California is reneging on a $140 million charitable pledge it made to win approval for a big acquisition. State officials said last month that the San Francisco insurer had agreed to give $14 million annually for 10 years to Blue Shield’s foundation or another…

In a perfect world, a gift is an expression of a deeper relationship. It is a tangible way of telling the other person you value them, you care about them, you love them and that they really do matter in the larger scheme of things. But in many relationships, gifts have become an obligatory transaction devoid of any real meaning. And that is why I worry about it...

Households with more than one child are more likely to give, and donate a bigger share of their income, if the eldest is a son, a new study finds. But parents with only one child are more likely to give, and to donate generously, if that child is a daughter. The report from the Women's…

In the nonprofit arena, especially the fundraising profession, leaders are often called upon to be change agents.

Today, I’m asking you to consider becoming a mentor to someone in our profession. As you know, major gift fundraising a tough job. It’s incredibly emotionally draining. There is a lot of second-guessing and wondering if you’re doing the right thing. This is where you come in. Unless you are absolutely new to major gift fundraising, you have experiences, mistakes and successes to help guide someone who desperately needs it...

For small and midsize charities, stewarding their big-gift donors pays off more than soliciting new prospects, concludes a new study. Surveying charities with less than $10 million in donated annual income to find out which factors enhance major-gifts fundraising, researchers found the groups lost an average of $300 for every prospective major donor solicited. By…