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Prospect research, RFM, wealth screeners, and other hands-off/arm’s-length methods of donor discovery can only work so well. And more often than not, the people they… Read More
So many nonprofits seeking major gifts keep doing what they’ve been told by the so-called experts, consultants, and traditionalists. Ask, ask, ask. Keep your metrics… Read More
It’s a problem as old as fundraising. How do you find, attract, and qualify people who can give major gifts to your nonprofit organization? Many… Read More
The days of easy fundraising are over. Now we need to face up to the hard parts of securing and sustaining philanthropic confidence. I’m sorry… Read More
At some point in your engagement with donors and supporters there comes a magical moment when you realize a person trusts you. At that moment,… Read More
The more you can learn about major donors before you meet them, the more effective you will be at that first meeting. A good first… Read More
When choosing board members, so many nonprofits gravitate towards doctors, lawyers, and accountants. Why? I think partially because it’s easier to know that they have… Read More
In nature, giving to unrelated others can be sustainable. But it requires some form of reciprocity. This need not be immediate. It need not be… Read More
Everyone Is entitled to their own fundraising opinions but not their own fundraising facts. That’s what the brilliant Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, without the reference… Read More
Questions are the most powerful tool in a fundraiser’s toolbox. More than anything else, asking good fundraising questions will build trust with donors, allow them… Read More
Many nonprofits use RFM as a means to fill their fundraising caseloads with supposedly qualified prospects – people who have a good chance of becoming… Read More
One of the most overlooked secrets to getting wealthy people to commit to a major gift is to simply get them talking about their wealth…. Read More
What is the ideal caseload size for gift officers? A quick internet search serves up a classic example of the term ‘conventional wisdom.’ Nearly every… Read More
I wasn’t interested in many Olympic sports until someone came up with the clever idea of preceding them with insightful and inspiring stories about the… Read More
Cold calling, for many fundraisers who dislike it, sits right up there with public speaking, which some surveys have found people fear more than dying…. Read More
The word “advancement” connotes forward movement. That requires forward thinking. Responsible leadership at both the organizational and advancement level requires bifocal vision – seeing and seizing… Read More
Some gift officers have dozens of prospects in their caseloads. Others have over a hundred. Dunbar’s number aside, we all know it’s impossible to maintain… Read More
A friend of mine recently asked for a $5 Million gift. THAT’S A LOT OF MONEY! But in terms of the money required to make… Read More
Why do too many major donor prospects not give, or give far less than their giving capacity? One of the main reasons is because they… Read More
Monomyth ending The universal hero story (monomyth) ends with the hero’s return. The hero returns to his original world. The return confirms his new heroic… Read More
If you’re working in major gifts and you’ve never heard this, you might need to alter your approach. Many of you reading this will be… Read More
Story conflict Advance the donor’s hero story. In major gifts fundraising, this works. It works for the donor. The donor is the hero. It works… Read More
Newly Wealthy Donors Aren’t Anything Like Donors Who Come from Families with Generational Wealth They have different world views, different perspectives about money, work, and… Read More
The list below was an attempt by Forbes Magazine to capture the “faces of philanthropy” way back in 1994. It’s interesting because it is from… Read More
Feeling like your job is getting harder because donor expectations have changed and competition for the charitable dollar is growing?
Finding that the old orthodoxies and conventions espoused by so-called experts in online echo-chambers and at conferences don’t work anymore?
Want to help more people make impact by facilitating their acts of philanthropy but feel like too many obstacles keep getting in your way?
Then this book is for you.
Engagement Fundraising was developed from the perspective of a donor who discovered firsthand that the impersonal, spray-and-pray approaches of his beloved charity were not only offensive but also wasteful and ineffective. So he took action. And now, you can too.
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