Many advancement teams have a primary culture of receiving gifts.
In general, these teams spend the bulk of their time, energy, and resources after gifts have been made. They are really good at responding, thanking, stewarding, and showing gratitude.
Some advancement teams have a primary culture of inviting gifts.
These teams spend more time, energy, and resources before gifts are made. They are really good at discovering, engaging, questioning, proposing, and inviting.
Both receiving and inviting gifts are important, of course.
But when we focus too much on receiving and not enough on inviting, we miss opportunities to educate, to engage, to learn, to excite, to bluesky, to brainstorm, and to enhance.
Most importantly, when we focus too much on receiving and not enough on inviting, we miss the opportunity to fully advance our institution’s mission.
