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The 7 biggest mistakes weak major gift officers make repeatedly
7. Wasting time in-house letting themselves get caught up in meetings, activities, or office politics
6. Forgetting to ask donors lots of questions about why they care, where their interests lie and what they want to accomplish
5. Talking too much (especially about themselves) — Don’t be a show up and throw up fundraiser!
4. Listening too little to donors’ stories, reasons for caring, and their interests, wants, needs and desires
3. Delivering presentations or proposals without knowing enough about a donor’s life story, why they care, and their interests, wants, needs, and desires
2. Hoarding donors (keeping donors on a list just because they have capacity even though they have been completely unresponsive and uninterested in building a relationship)
1. Focusing on the wrong donors (especially super-nice ones with no money)
Can you add to my list? Do you think my #1 is right on target?
You can also click here to see the top 10 reasons why gift officers fail to engage their supporters effectively
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>> Should legacy gift notification forms die?
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I’m a PGO, so my donor base is older than is typical for MGOs, but I think one time-waster is people who just can’t make up their minds. I suspect that it’s caused by a personality trait combined with age-related deterioration in the executive function of the brain. The indecision can be about gift type (something more difficult to navigate as we age) but I’ve had it happen with people who can’t make up their minds about the purpose of their gift.