Giving is Good
You’ve invited one of your best prospective major donors to make a significant gift to help construct an exciting new facility. You know that the donor is generous and has made other significant gifts in the past. You know that the donor values your mission. You know that the donor agrees that constructing this facility…
If I asked, “Do you have a day and a half you can use simply for yourself? To disconnect. To focus on yourself with no other responsibilities for family or work, etc. For self-care, for feeling better, for getting healthier.” Most likely, the typical response would be something between laughter and suspicion regarding my sanity. …
Not long ago a family friend just starting his career came to me with a question. He was looking at two potential job opportunities. One was a part-time position for a company with which he had already interned. The part-time position had no benefits but he knew who his supervisor would be (and liked her)…
The essence of fundraising (i.e., development) is often analogized with “asking for the gift,” or “engaging the giver,” or “cultivating the prospect,” or even “stewarding the donor.” But almost never is fundraising viewed as “spreading ideas.” Spreading ideas, though, is exactly what the best development and advancement leaders and teams do exceptionally well. They effectively…
Too often we think of the donor’s next gift as if it is their final gift. “Don’t leave money on the table.” “I asked for too little.” “We could have gotten more.” These are familiar statements we use nonchalantly but they deeply shape how we think about a donor’s current gift. It’s as if we…
Perhaps one of Maya Angelou’s most well-known quotes is her wise sentence on interpersonal influence: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” During our firm’s Annual Conference this past weekend, our Gonser Gerber family recognized and thanked…
“Open” people are the ones you should be spending the bulk of your time engaging as an advancement professional. People who are open are learners. They are interested in ways to make tomorrow better than today. They are willing to charitably invest in others who are working to make tomorrow better than today. “Closed” people…
The business minded folks in our institutions view gifts as income. Sometimes they don’t like to make concrete decisions with budgets based on potential gifts (i.e., the annual fund) because they view gifts as “soft income.” “Perhaps,” the thinking goes, “that income won’t materialize so it’s safer not to make plans with it in mind.”…
The story is that “unrestricted” or “where needed most” or “comprehensive giving” is the most difficult money to raise. It’s the story we tell ourselves in meetings. It’s the story we tell our colleagues and bosses and Board members. It’s the story we hear at professional development conferences. But, why is this the story? The…
A donor has been making generous annual gifts consistently for years. Then, 3 years ago, the giving abruptly stops. No one on the team has a clear understanding why this donor stopped giving. You decide to reach out to this donor and see if you can set up a visit. The donor agrees. What would…