Wealthy Donors

A perennial question in fundraising shops between now and the end of January will be, “Did we make the numbers for 2015?” Regardless of the answer, there are several questions that are far more important for the future of your organization, and there’s no better time than in these closing days of 2015 to ask…

Self-made billionaires in the U.S. are giving the most to charity, donating on average $179.5 million per person over their lifetimes, according to a new study. In contrast, the typical ultra high net worth philanthropist worldwide gives $28.7 million over his or her lifetime. While ultra-rich men tend to give far more than their female…

When Gail McGovern was picked to head the American Red Cross in 2008, the organization was reeling. Her predecessor had been fired after impregnating a subordinate. The charity was running an annual deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars. A former AT&T executive who had taught marketing at Harvard Business School, McGovern pledged to make…

I was in a meeting recently with some managers when overhead came up. You would think we had just moved into the ring of a major boxing match. Goodness. Some managers were defensive. Others quietly retreated into their spreadsheets. Still, others moved into some language about “we’re doing the best we can to keep costs down.” So, I stepped into this swamp with the following question: “What do you think donors think about overhead?”...

Effective altruism is all about maximizing the impact of philanthropy. It supports the idea that one should give to the nonprofits that are able to statistically prove they are most effective. At first pass, it felt weird to me. Upon closer inspection, I recognize that effective altruism is a laudable concept, but a flawed one. Here's why...

To give is to gain a heap of grief if you're a mega-rich donor these days. In recent months, a hedge fund billionaire was denounced for his $400 million gift to the already wealthy Harvard University, David Geffen took flak for gifts that plaster his name on a Manhattan concert hall and a Los Angeles…

“How do we double our program’s revenue?” is a question we hear a lot, and not just from the peer-to-peer fundraising directors, but also from the very senior level people in an organization. Personally, regardless of who is asking, I love this question because it supports a “go big or go home” mentality, and yet,…

It’s well-known that the wealthy give less, as a percentage of income, than the less affluent. According to Ken Stern’s “With Charity for All: Why Charities Are Failing and a Better Way to Give,” the top 20 percent of earners give about 1.3 percent of their incomes to charity; the lowest 20 percent of earners give 3.2 percent of their incomes. How come?...

“I felt disappointed.” That is what one chief development officer (CDO) said when questioned about the budget he had been assigned. This CDO had presented a revenue budget to his CEO that was reality-based, taking into account what was in the pipeline and measures for growth. What he got back was a number that was more than two-and-a-half times the 10 percent growth the organization had attained in the prior year. Why would a CEO assign a revenue budget that the person in charge of revenue feels is unrealistic?...

Those of us in the direct-response fundraising profession are living in the age of walking a tightrope. That’s especially true when we wrestle with budgeting issues. Let me suggest we begin with two key insights: (1) Who nonprofit fundraisers should target to maximize revenue, and (2) how and where to best communicate with the target audience to accomplish this...