Giving, I believe, is a spiritual act. I believe this, in part, because every major world religion points its adherents toward being generous to others: Judaism: Tzedakah is a Hebrew word that means “righteousness,” or “fairness.” In the Jewish faith tradition, tzedakah is operationalized as a obligation to help others and make the world more…
Author: Jason McNeal
I provide leadership, advancement and fundraising consulting services to educational, healthcare, and non-profit organizations.
Informal Indicators of Future Financial Distress
Here are some behaviors that point to a troubling financial future ahead for your institution: Your institution is investing more (more people, more financial resources, etc.) in “marketing” as opposed to investing more in traditional development efforts. During Board meetings, your institution’s Board is awkward about or doesn’t easily and regularly have open discussions about…
Belief Flexibility and Hiring For Success
Traditionally, we hire for advancement positions with a core set of attributes and characteristics in mind. For instance, we want people on our team who are: Ethical Excellent communicators Relationship-oriented Attentive to detail, and, Goal-oriented Even though the above list is just a sampling, we typically don’t include “belief flexibility” as one of those core…
What Donors Value
More often than not, it’s not another tchotchke. Nor is it public recognition. It’s not their name on a building, or even being told about the impact of their gift. Far more often, donors value an experience. And, donors value the good feelings that come with giving. Donors value the experience of access. Whether that…
Former Board Members
Whether through the rhythm of regular Board meetings or in more individual and personal settings, institutional leaders are wise to pay attention to current Board members because of the important legal, fiduciary, and supervisory roles they hold. But, what about the relationships with individuals who previously served on the Board? Because they no longer hold…
What About Lightning?
“What about asking the alumni who have never given?” “What about asking the wealthy business leaders in our community who haven’t supported us?” “What about asking the Gates Foundation or MacKenzie Scott? It can be tempting to focus on the prospects who may have the financial capacity but have never shown the willingness or interest…
Today and Tomorrow
Today, we may want more resources for our annual giving program. On the other hand, tomorrow we may want to have more dollars raised from our annual giving program. Today, we may want another gift officer to meet with more donors. On the other hand, tomorrow we may want to have more discovery visits completed…
How Many?
Because so much of our work is counted or can be counted, advancement folk often ask this question first. How many donors should we send this solicitation to? How many donor calls should we make so that we end the year strong? How many gifts will make this giving day successful? A far better question…
Little, Powerful Phrases
Instead of simply saying these phrases each day, what if we made the effort to mean these phrases each day? “Thank you.” “You’re welcome.” “How are you?” “Good morning.” “I’m sorry.” “I appreciate you.” “See you tomorrow.” If we made a habit of saying these common, everyday phrases animated by their real meaning: advancement team…
The Same, But Different
Productive annual giving messaging often gets changed too quickly because the type of message feels “the same” and change feels like progress. Example: “Let’s not use a student scholarship story for our end of calendar year direct mail annual fund letter since we used a student story in the last annual fund letter.” Similarly, productive…