Major Gifts

I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly love rejection. In fact, rejection is such a huge issue that most of us are extremely wary of major-donor solicitations. I can’t say that I love it when a potential donor does not come across with an enthusiastic “Yes!” but I do have some tips on how to find out what the issue is and make reluctance work for you. Here are a few questions to ask if your donor says, “I’m not sure.”

Every week Richard and I answer dozens of questions from executive directors, development directors and major-gift officers. While every question is slightly different and every nonprofit is unique, there are basic key absolutes hidden in all of them. So today I’m going to “answer” these questions by laying out seven elements of what a major-gift program and those who work with that program need. We firmly believe that if you follow these seven “absolutes,” you’ll be successful with your major-gift program.

Major-gift prospects requires the critical first meeting, which can be facilitated by a door-opener or “access person.” With strong collaboration and information sharing between fundraisers and prospect researchers, the latter can play an essential role in identifying access people.

At every level in fundraising, give your donors and prospective donors opportunities to share their stories. Let them know that they matter and that they can make a big difference.  

A question that Richard and I often get from development directors and MGOs is whether or not caseload donors should get regular direct-response appeals (mail and e-mail) just like the rest of the donor file. Our answer is always: Absolutely. Okay, so I heard a lot of gasps out there. But let me ask a question. Where do you think most donors who are on major-gift caseloads come from? Most major-gift donors come from those first $25 checks that are sent in from either a direct mail or e-appeal campaign.

As Alexander Graham Bell said, "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." His words ring true for any fundraiser today: Be prepared! Take steps now to ensure success when the time is right for a major campaign!

For donors and charities, there’s no place like home when it comes to very large gifts, according to a new study of publicly announced gifts of $1 million or more released by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The majority of such gifts (60 percent) come from donors who live in the same state or geographic region as the nonprofit or foundation that receives the gift, the report finds.

Major donors have changed a lot in what they want and expect from nonprofits. Ten years ago, you could raise good money with a “spray and pray”  appeal that was boring and generic. Now we have to work harder and smarter. The good news is that we can rely on plenty of research about major donors. What are they are thinking about their philanthropy and nonprofits? I’ve culled through the research — and here are my top 10 major-donor trends for 2013, along with a strategy to ride each trend productively.

How easy is it for charities to capitalize on major donor fundraising? And what are the skills and systems they need in place to be successful? Mary Glanville, managing director U.K. for the Institute for Philanthropy, says that charities should bear in mind that when major donors are thinking about making a gift they will often do careful research on the potential recipient organization.

At last year's New York Nonprofit Conference by the DMA Nonprofit Federation, American Bible Society's Kim Carter and Stratmark's (now KerstenDirect) Max Bunch shared "4 Mistakes to Avoid and 3 Ideas for Uncovering Major Donors in Your File."