Some gift officers chafe at the idea that Prospect Discovery visits should be purposefully planned with specific questions prepared to ask. “It feels too staged. . . too inauthentic. . .to probe with specific, planned questions,” they respond when presented with questions they could ask the prospect. “I just let the conversation emerge organically and…
Author: Jason McNeal
I provide advancement and fundraising consulting services to educational, healthcare, and non-profit organizations.
Fear, Anger, and Hate
You can raise a lot of money very quickly appealing to negative emotions. Humans are hard-wired to respond physically to negativity. When we are fearful, or angered, or bitter, our bodies release stress hormones that prepare us to fight or flight. Our physical and psychological responses to negativity are powerful motivators. In the short term,…
5 Lessons Dogs Teach Us About Fundraising
Pay more attention to others, less to yourself. Dogs don’t care about what they are doing. They care about what you are doing. And that makes us feel good. Don’t let a “no” derail your efforts. Sure, your dog might pout or cower if told “no” forcefully. But dogs don’t stay in that negative emotional…
Concealed Benefits
**This Jason’s Blog entry is a bit more personal than usual. I hope you still find it helpful** Today, our family will travel together to move our oldest child and only daughter (and sister) to college. I’m a first generation college graduate. I grew up professionally in the higher ed. administrative and teaching spaces. I’ve…
The Donor Awareness Matrix
A key aim of our advancement work should be to gain deeper awareness of our donors (and prospective donors). What do they believe about our institution? What is their motivation to volunteer? To give? What are their specific reasons for engaging with us? How would they describe their values? What other organizations do they support…
Where, Who, and How
“What makes us distinctive or different or unique as compared with other institutions like us?” This is a question that Board members, administrative leaders, advancement folk, and others ask regularly and with some measure of irritation. The regularity of asking this question stems from the fact that our answer is fundamentally important to our marketing,…
Distracting Ourselves
If a menacing alien lifeform wanted to take over our world by systematically distracting us, I’m relatively certain they could not hatch a more effective plan than to introduce email into our lives. They would sell us on the ease, cost-efficiency, and instantaneous nature of the communication. And, used to only phones, snail mail, and…
Being Open To A Different Answer
Recently, I gave a 20-minute presentation designed to address the question, “when should you go public with your campaign?” The core of my response to this important question was (I admit unsatisfyingly), “it depends.” Simply put, there are no specific points of progress, no formula, nor definitive alignment of variables which would consistently forecast, for…
Describing before Prescribing
Gift officers put tremendous time and energy into identifying the best possible gift ask amounts for each of the donors they engage. They also focus a great deal of attention on identifying the area or purpose of the proposed gift. In other words, gift officers spend a lot of time prescribing gifts to donors. “We…
Point Of View
Without a point of view, any strategy that sounds good is worth trying. Without a point of view, it becomes exceptionally difficult to choose what to do and, (more) importantly, what not to do. Without a point of view, the annual calendar quickly devolves into a hodge-podge of activities without a general theme or purpose….