There are two questions consistently asked by serious advancement professionals:
- “How can our institution get better prepared for our next campaign?” and
- “How can I get better at asking for major gifts?”
These questions, of course, are linked. Consistently soliciting gifts effectively will help ensure that an institution is well-prepared for a campaign. However, there are many follow-on questions stemming from these first two that will lead to whole set of new and different issues. For instance, “now that we know how prepared we are for a campaign, what is our game plan to ensure campaign success?” Or, “now that we know the best ways to solicit a major gift, what are some of the best practices for identifying and engaging major donor prospects?”
To be sure, these two short questions can stimulate long, involved, and important answers.
For these reasons, Kent Huyser and I will be leading two important Gonser Gerber Institute 1-day workshops to address these often-asked questions. These are two separate workshops designed to be participant-centric and packed with information.
The first workshop is focused on Campaign Readiness and will occur on Thursday, April 21. The second workshop is focused on Asking for the Gift and will occur on Friday, April 22. You can sign up for one or both and each will be held in our offices in Naperville, IL.
For those who have attended our workshops at the Gonser Gerber offices previously, you are aware that we keep the number of participants below 20 so that we can have a true discussion-oriented experience. I can promise you will leave these workshops with a clearer understanding and specific plans for how best to utilize a campaign readiness study and how best to ask for that next big gift.
Sign up today – we have a few seats remaining for these workshops and I sincerely hope you will join me and Kent next month for either – or both! I can’t wait to see you in Naperville and you’ll be glad you attended!
