Skip to content

Jason's Blog

Giving is Good

Menu
  • About Jason
  • Consulting
  • Engage
  • Learn
Menu

Author: Jason McNeal

I provide leadership, advancement and fundraising consulting services to educational, healthcare, and non-profit organizations.

2 Types of Advancement Vision

Posted on April 26, 2023 by Jason McNeal

Creating a vision statement for your advancement program is a helpful step in becoming more effective. If the advancement mission statement is focused on our purpose, or what we do, the vision statement is focused on what we are aiming to achieve, or why we are doing what we do. Our vision statement should be…

Read more

Just Go Play

Posted on April 24, 2023April 24, 2023 by Jason McNeal

My son plays high school basketball.  During the fall of 2020, his freshman year, his high school made the difficult decision to cancel most of their season due to the pandemic. Because he would be missing a full year of his high school career, my son went to his coach and asked what drills he…

Read more

“Be Gentle. Push Harder”

Posted on April 21, 2023 by Jason McNeal

Not long ago I interviewed a major donor for a faith-based institution. I asked her about her perception of the advancement team’s effectiveness.  She was complimentary of the team and then said, “they need to be gentle, and push harder.” As we continued the interview, I asked more about what she meant. She shared that…

Read more

Feeling Questions

Posted on April 19, 2023April 18, 2023 by Jason McNeal

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…

Read more

5 Fundamental Guidelines to Advancement Success

Posted on April 17, 2023April 16, 2023 by Jason McNeal

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…

Read more

What We Need

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Jason McNeal

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,…

Read more

3 Questions To Ask Before Visiting A Donor

Posted on April 10, 2023 by Jason McNeal

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…

Read more

Hope and Indifference

Posted on April 7, 2023 by Jason McNeal

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…

Read more

From “How” To “Why?”

Posted on April 5, 2023April 4, 2023 by Jason McNeal

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…

Read more

Are We Getting Better?

Posted on April 3, 2023April 2, 2023 by Jason McNeal

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…

Read more
  • Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • …
  • 76
  • Next
Get updates from Jason's Blog via email:

Share Jason’s Blog

RSS
Facebook
fb-share-icon
Twitter
Tweet
LinkedIn
Share
© 2023 Jason's Blog | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme