Wealthy Donors

In 1994, "The Seven Faces of Philanthropy: A New Approach to Cultivating Major Donors" was published. At the time, it was a revolutionary practical methodology to address major and planned giving that continues to prove exceedingly effective today. The following are the seven distinct wealthy charitable-donor personalities: Communitarians are the most common wealthy-donor personality. For…

Donors to the nonprofit group Crossroads GPS, founded by Republican strategist Karl Rove, no longer have to worry about their identities being disclosed. After a five-year wait, the IRS has approved the organization’s application for tax-exempt status. Crossroads had been the most active of the nonprofits that are funneling cash into politics—often called "dark money"…

Fundraising is such a misunderstood enterprise. And it’s not just misunderstood by nonprofit leaders in the trenches. The other day, I was talking to a foundation program officer, who is normally very savvy and wondered if one of his struggling grantees should think about launching a new gala event to raise some additional money. I…

Big strides recently have been made in the acknowledgment that overhead ratios are poor indicators of an organization’s impact or financial efficiency. Although the movement toward outcomes-based measurement offers a promising alternative to understanding impact, very little has been done to truly shift the sector’s understanding of what it takes—or even means—for nonprofits to be…

To those optimistic, persistent souls who have a vested interest in seeing positive social change in the U.S., here’s a sobering message: If you are looking for meaningful government support, don’t hold your breath. Political gridlock and mounting federal debt effectively have rendered the U.S. government impotent, robbing it of its historic ability to spur…

We know multimillion-dollar gifts are never anything to sneeze at. But the sizable shift in major-gift amounts from some of the wealthiest donors and their foundations is worth watching. And, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of the year’s top 10 biggest, publicly announced, single gifts, deep pockets were significantly shallower in 2015. We’ve highlighted some of the list’s biggest takeaways...

Three heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune have given away hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the retailer’s shares to a family trust that finances its philanthropy. According to regulatory filings on New Year’s Eve, Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, gave away 3.7 million of her Wal-Mart Stores shares on Dec.…

A wealthy Republican wants to require unprecedented transparency in California by forcing state politicians to plaster their suits and dresses with the logos of their top 10 donors—and voters fed up with those politicians actually may get the chance to vote on the idea in November. The unusual dress code is offered in a proposed…

Bruce Fenton, executive director at the Bitcoin Foundation, opened the company's Dec. 15 board meeting with a sense of urgency: “We need additional funds if we wish to retain employees.” The numbers didn’t look good. In two years, the foundation had seen at least $7 million evaporate. As of Nov. 30, its total assets stood at $12,553.06. To…

No one likes to be scolded. Yet most nonprofits make a practice of regularly admonishing supporters to give "where most needed." You probably think this is a good thing. After all, it gives you the greatest flexibility. Right? Wrong. You’ll have a lot more flexibility if you raise more money. And you’ll raise a lot more money if you stop thinking about you and your needs and think more about your donors and their needs...