The 2016 U.S. Presidential election is now behind us (although my Facebook feed would suggest otherwise). If we can remove the divisiveness from the election for just a moment and look at what the candidates proposed about charitable giving policy, we will see that neither of the major party candidates were focused on enacting tax…
Author: Jason McNeal
I provide leadership, advancement and fundraising consulting services to educational, healthcare, and non-profit organizations.
A Giving Revival
A wonderful benefit of my work as a consultant is the opportunity I have to interview some of the wealthiest and most generous individuals in North America. I ask questions about their philanthropy – where they give, why they give, and how much they give. I listen to their life’s stories. And I attempt to…
It’s Lazy to Focus on “Working Harder”
You’ve heard it before. You may have said it yourself – to yourself or to others. You probably even believed it when you heard it or said it. And you may have thought it would motivate people toward better results. “We’ve just got to work harder.” In today’s world with tighter budgets and higher expectations,…
Responding to the Preemptive Gift
“Thanks for the lunch invitation. I appreciating you visiting with me,” the donor said. Before the gift officer could respond, the donor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a check for $3,000. “And before I forget, I wanted to make sure I gave this to you,” he said. The gift was larger than…
The Value of Influence in a Post-Expertise World
One of the by-products of our digitally-connected age is the waning value of expertise. The growing understanding today is that the everyone’s right to express an opinion is synonymous with the notion that everyone’s opinion is equally informed. Medical doctors and research scientists have been publicly second-guessed by celebrities with influence but no medical training…
“How Many?” versus “How Deeply?”
For many institutions, the concept of “advancement performance metrics” can be boiled down to a collection of quantifiable goals that represent some number more than last year’s. For instance, you may have a metric for an increased number of $1,000 donors. Or, you may have a metric for an increased number of “moves,” or “visits”…
Early Exigencies
When do you feel the need to act most urgently during the gift giving process? Perhaps this sounds like an odd question. It may, though, be an important one for you and your team. I have experienced many development professionals who become especially urgent during the stewardship phase of the gift giving cycle. Once the…
Customer or Community Member
If people talk about your institution as “being a community” (or words to that effect) and yet, you don’t consistently ask people to give of themselves and their resources, you are only talking about community, you don’t have community. Many institutions behave toward their constituents as if they were customers, not community members. Customers are…
Generosity as Genius
We tend to think of genius as a gift bestowed genetically on individuals in various ways – intellectually, artistically, scientifically, even athletically. Genius emerges based on a predisposition to greatness in some field or endeavor. While we understand that training, practice, effort, and focus are components of genius, perhaps honing and sharpening the raw, natural…
Why It Can Be Difficult to Ask
Here are some examples of well-worn statements that underscore the culture-wide bias we have against asking. . . If we are in a jam: “I’ll never ask you for anything ever again. . .” or, “I wouldn’t ask you, but. . .” If we are uncomfortable: “He didn’t bring it up, so I didn’t ask…