With all the ego, all the cross-talking, and aggressive posturing during the debates, you may find it surprising that both our presidential candidates agree on at least one thing – capping the charitable gift deduction is a good idea. As one might guess, non-profit groups – armed with studies that highlight how injurious such legislation would…
Category: Leadership
Talking Missional and Relational But Walking Transactional
Most advancement leaders talk a good game. Most can tell you that the primary driver behind giving is the donor’s interest in the institution’s mission and vision. They can tell you that building meaningful relationships with donors whose values and interests align with the mission and vision of the institution is the most effective way…
Preempting the Preemptive Major Gift
A vice president for advancement and a president recently were on a solicitation visit with a donor. The president is new to his position (less than a year) and the donor is a long-time supporter of this institution and is a major philanthropist in the region. The vp and president were there to ask for…
Do You Believe In The Benefits of Giving?
Here’s a simple “what’s really important” check for you today: Do you believe that giving is an important component of a healthy life? Do you believe that giving stimulates our brains in much the same ways that food and sex do? Do you believe that giving reduces chronic pain? Do you believe that giving lowers…
The 3 Key Levers to Raising More Money
You will recall your days in elementary school when you first learned about the power of the lever and the fulcrum. This tool shows us that putting our emphasis on simple, well-positioned components can have huge effects. The Greek scientist, Archimedes is noted to have said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum…
The Metrics of Perfection
How do you measure success? More importantly, how do you view success? By this, I mean, how do you think about what success looks like for your advancement team? For many institutions, an answer might be, “if we raise $(fill in the blank) million next year we will be successful.” Or, “if we grow our…
How Volunteers Can Help You Shave Better
I have found that development volunteers typically fall into 1 of 3 categories – Latherers, Raisers, and After-Shavers. 1. Latherers – these are the volunteers who enjoy encouraging prospects to give or get involved. I once had a college roommate who could get a party together within a few hours by calling all of our…
The 5 Years Before You Raise Serious Money
Here’s an enlightening exercise: Go through your database and identify your current donors who have made leadership-level annual gifts, current major gifts, and planned gift commitments. Next, do the following: For those donors who have made leadership-level annual gifts (whatever the amount as defined by your institution), determine the average age at which they made…
Is “Hard Data” The Best Way to Make Your Case?
In building a case for support for our institutions, advancement professionals typically rely on one of two approaches: a fact-based, quantitative, logical approach, or a story-based, qualitative, anecdotal approach. Depending on the predilection of the author of the message, a reader or listener quickly can see a fondness for one approach over the other. If…
The Problem with “Handsome Clothes”
My son, who is 6, likes to refer to any nice suit of clothes as “handsome clothes.” So, when I travel to visit with clients, or when we get ready for church, or head out for a nice event, he will ask me, “Daddy, which handsome clothes are you going to wear? I want to…