Major Gifts

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...

When he was 6 months old, Woody Duff (now 4)—son of Shamrock Rovers winger Damien Duff (formerly Chelsea, Newcastle and Fulham)—underwent heart surgery. In a show of gratitude to the hospital that operated on his son, and to help other families that aren’t blessed enough to include a family member with his ball-kicking prowess, Damien…

The self-styled supercomputer visionary who secretly pledged $100 million to Portland State University has been spinning grandiose tales of success to public officials, industry insiders and prospective investors for two decades. But an analysis of public documents left in John Michael Fitzpatrick’s wake, from Boardman, Ore., to Washington, D.C., turns up no evidence of the…

Portland State University administrators hoped to unveil the largest gift in the school's 69-year history Tuesday, a bombshell $100 million anonymous donation. Portland State had invited Gov. Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Charlie Hales to a Tuesday morning news conference announcing the unrestricted contribution by a man described as a former student. The gift would…

Time magazine went deep on Donald Trump for its August cover story. And while the article spends most of its running length exploring Trump's stance on various policy issues, there's a juicy nugget buried at the bottom, when Trump addresses an upcoming debate on CNN: "So if I go to CNN and I say, 'Look, you’re going to have a massive audience,' and if I say to them, 'I want $10 million for charity, nothing for myself,' what happens?"...

A $20-million donation to the financially troubled Paul Smith’s College in rural upstate New York is in limbo, dependent on whether the college agrees to rename itself, a controversial issue that has landed the matter in court. Joan Weill, a longtime board member and benefactor to Paul Smith’s College and the wife of Wall Street…