Major Gifts

I will never forget what happened to the major gifts officer (MGO) who went into the office of an owner at a very large company in California and asked for a gift. The donor said, “When you have something that has some vision and is in the million-dollar range, come back and see me. What you are proposing today does not interest me.” ...

At this time of year, many major gift officers (MGO) are evaluating their caseloads. Great MGOs understand the donors on their caseloads are really not theirs. They understand that in order to grow the major gift program, sometimes they have to “sacrifice” some of the donors they have been cultivating and “give” them away to another MGO who is building their caseload...

The Portland State University Foundation is trying to put would-be donor John Fitzpatrick behind it after a scandal that led to the Sept. 1 resignations of CEO Françoise Aylmer and chief development officer Kristin Coppola. “The university has had no more nor desires to have any discussions with Mr. Fitzpatrick,” said Portland State University spokesman…

A University of Wisconsin-Madison fundraising drive that began last fall with a $100 million pledge has generated a quarter of a billion dollars, university officials announced Tuesday. Alumni John and Tashia Morgridge pledged last November to match up to $100 million in donations—the largest gift from individual donors in school history—to help establish endowed professorships…

I don’t believe you must be rich to be a philanthropist. The very word philanthropy means “love of humanity.” Anyone can do it. But, the rich are different. Not fundamentally, of course. We’ve already established that they just have more money. But that’s enough to warrant a different approach, because major-donor giving will make more of a difference to your cause and to instilling energy into life-affirming organizations and projects...

Effective major gifts work is, at its essence, serving the interests and passions of a donor. This may sound formulaic—it may sound basic and boring. But, just do this (and do it well) and you will be wildly successful. Don’t ever search for a replacement to a tried-and-true formula for doing anything. Instead, use the formula or approach and innovate within it...

The very best major gift officers maintain a unique blend of talents and attributes that make them best-suited to generate the ongoing support of the nonprofit organizations they serve. They are literally worth their weight in gold not because of how they perform, but because they are naturally individuals that everyone loves to be around…

The president of Portland State University's fundraising arm and the school's chief development officer are resigning after pursuing a $100 million gift from a self-described billionaire who turned out to be a recently bankrupt bitcoin dealer known for peddling grandiose schemes. Francoise Aylmer will resign as president and CEO of the PSU Foundation, effective Sept.…

We are a society that values youth. We want to look young, feel young, be young—forever it seems. Billions of dollars are spent trying to recapture a youthful look. I would say our society is absolutely obsessed with it. And, as Richard and I meet major gift officers and fundraising professionals around the country, it’s…

The purpose of this post is to discuss how to close a gift in a golf outing. People pay to play in the outing and are typically asked to contribute additionally through raffles, auctions, etc., at the outing site. Another way to gain financial favor is to simply ask a prospect for a gift on the golf course. If I want to ask for a larger gift, I use the golf outing as cultivation time to match the prospect and organizational representatives who are responsible for priorities...