3 Things You Must Define to Receive a $5 Million Gift
A friend of mine recently asked for a $5 Million gift. THAT’S A LOT OF MONEY! But in terms of…
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Unlock Bigger Gifts – 3 Types of Questions that Position Major Donors for Maximum Generosity
Why do too many major donor prospects not give, or give far less than their giving capacity? One of the…
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Why public gratitude and admiration are key to the donor’s hero story
Monomyth ending The universal hero story (monomyth) ends with the hero’s return. The hero returns to his original world. The…
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The Pathway to a Significant Philanthropic Investment is Not Paved With Just “Visits”
A common KPI used to evaluate fundraisers is the number of visits they pay on prospects in their portfolios. It…
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The Top Fundraising Enemy Standing Between Gift Officer and Donor
Major gift fundraising is hard work. It’s about growing a relationship between donor and gift officer, as they work together…
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How gratitude completes the donor hero story
“In myths the hero is the one who conquers the dragon, not the one who is devoured by it.” –…
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“I’ve never told anyone this before.”
If you’re working in major gifts and you’ve never heard this, you might need to alter your approach. Many of…
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6 Ways to Reframe or Lower the Costs of Giving a Major Gift
Like any other donors, wealthy donors want to give. But when wealthy donors give, it’s usually a major gift, meaning…
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How blockbuster movies can help you make the perfect fundraising ask
Universal challenge Let’s go to the movies! And when we go, what will we see? If it’s a blockbuster, we’ll…
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How to Find A Good Advancement Leader: Ask the Right Questions
You’ve had a least one bad boss or worked in at least one depleting advancement operation. Now you’re interviewing for…
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Why Tax Deductions for Major Gifts Matter to Wealthy Donors
A basic marketing precept is to “know your audience.” As a major gifts officer or fundraiser, your audience is wealthy…
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How Fundraisers Can Reconcile the Competition that Exists Between Your Donors’ & Administrators’ Hero Stories
Story conflict Advance the donor’s hero story. In major gifts fundraising, this works. It works for the donor. The donor…
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How “Polite Persistence” Pays Off for Major Gifts Fundraisers
It took me 16 contacts over a 12-month period to get a visit scheduled with one couple. They then went…
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The Greatest Worry of Newly Wealthy Families – and How Major Gift Officers Can Help
Newly Wealthy Donors Aren’t Anything Like Donors Who Come from Families with Generational Wealth They have different world views, different…
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Why fundraisers feel stuck in the middle between Administrators and Donors
Hero story In the universal hero story, a guiding sage helps the hero. The sage Challenges the hero to begin…
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The Faces of Philanthropy: Are They Changing?
The list below was an attempt by Forbes Magazine to capture the “faces of philanthropy” way back in 1994. It’s…
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Top 10 Ways You Can Benefit from Conducting a Donor Survey
First, it’s important to recognize that there are two reasons to conduct a donor survey: To conduct research To raise money…
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To Visit or Not to Visit: Choose Wisely
It doesn’t really matter if you go on a visit TODAY. It also doesn’t really matter if you DON’T go…
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How I leave voicemail messages that get returned
Generally here’s how I leave messages that get returned: APPRECIATION: I say ‘thank you’ (and I get sort of ’emotional…
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How to be an authentic guiding sage for your donors
The guiding sage The hero’s journey is a universal story. In that universal story, the guiding sage plays a powerful…
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The Seven Principles of Advancement Leadership
I recently had the pleasure of orienting a new chief advancement officer who is coming to the position from another…
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Too much major and legacy gift fundraising is focused on HOW, when it should be focused on WHY
What the heck am I talking about? Major gift fundraising communications (especially legacy gift marketing) tend to focus too much…
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How major gifts fundraisers should introduce themselves to donors
The universal hero story is attractive. This “monomyth” is “hard-wired into our psyches.”[1] In the donor’s hero story, the donor’s…
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Tips for hiring major gift fundraisers
“Let’s hire Johnny… He knows everybody!” Here’s the problem: Johnny is an idiot. Let me explain. So many times, organizations…
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