People feel the intent of the question, regardless of the word choice or content. “Can you help me understand the numbers?” can be an authentic, even humble question. Or, it can be a passive-aggressive bomb. “Were you invited to the meeting?” can be a question that elevates one’s sense of value. Or, it can be…
Author: Jason McNeal
I provide leadership, advancement and fundraising consulting services to educational, healthcare, and non-profit organizations.
5 Fundamental Guidelines to Advancement Success
Advancement and fundraising success comes from the consistent and persistent implementation of fundamental strategies and approaches. But with so many technological “solutions” and various tactics one can be introduced to online or at a multitude of conferences, which strategies and approaches should we be consistently implementing? Here are 5 basic guidelines to help you discern…
What We Need
We may, legitimately, need another gift officer on the team. Incontrovertibly, we may need another gift processor. There may be no question that we need more budgeted resources to implement our alumni program. All of these limited-resource realities (and many others) might be accurate and true. But none of them change the fact that today,…
3 Questions To Ask Before Visiting A Donor
What do I know about this donor? What do I want to learn about this donor? What is the preferred outcome from this visit? The first and second questions should be focused on what we know and want to learn about the donor based on their their professional life, their personal life, our institution’s priority…
Hope and Indifference
Two socially transmitted doctrines. In one, we invite an authentic, joyful, heartening belief to overtake us: “Tomorrow will be better than today.” In the other, we give in to a cynical, misanthropic, resigning frame of mind and heart: “I’m not concerned about tomorrow.” There is no question that advancing our institutions is done best when…
From “How” To “Why?”
Yesterday, I used OpenAI’s artificial-intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, for the first time. I asked ChatGPT the following question: “How can I raise more money as a university development officer?” Here, in full, is the response I received in less than 10 seconds: “As a university development officer, your primary responsibility is to raise funds for your…
Are We Getting Better?
We are busier than ever before. We are working harder than ever before. We feel more harried than ever before. We have more tasks on our to-do list than ever before. We feel more pressure than ever before. But, are we getting better? Better at communicating. Better technically. Better at engaging donors. Better at inviting…
Raising More Money
What if that isn’t the goal? What if the goal is to invite more people to care? Or to educate more people on why your institution’s mission matters? Or to generate more understanding about the lived experiences of others? Or to encourage more people to experience the joy of giving? Or to connect more people…
Believing What We Say
“We don’t believe what we hear. We believe what we say.” Social scientists have proved this old saying over and over again in a multitude of studies. For instance, and as Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long report in their book, “The Molecule of More,” if we talk with someone about the importance of honesty and…
I Need Better Data
“I need better data,” is the response we often hear (and sometimes give ourselves) when we are uncomfortable with a next step. Consider: “I need more data before I know how much to invite him to give. . .” “I need better data before we can run an accurate list of donors who gave at…