Giving is Good
The primary goal of advancement programs should be to create conditions which encourage donor generosity. Generosity producing conditions – be they through direct mail letters, phonathon calls, special events, or face-to-face visits – lead to donor experiences. If these experiences are inspiring, energizing and/or encouraging for our donors, generosity is more likely to follow. So, how…
The 2010 Bank of America High Net Worth Philanthropy Study was released yesterday. This is the third biennial study which has been conducted since 2006. The headlines most reported about the study are similar to what the “Chronicle of Philanthropy” posited: “Donations By the Wealthy Dropped Sharply in the Recession, Study Finds“ And yes, the…
What if, instead of development professionals focusing on “getting the gift,” we focused on “giving the gift?” There is growing and substantial research evidence suggesting that giving to others reaps meaningful physical, spiritual, and emotional benefits for the donor. Two of the early researched-based books on the topic were Allan Luks’, The Healing Power of…
Institutions looking to cut costs associated with printed annual reports, president’s reports, or donor honor rolls regularly turn to their websites. “Let’s put it online!” is the knee-jerk response. And it’s not a bad idea to put such reports online. But once the decision is made to go electronic, few institutions implement with the same…
“Touch” is a robust, flexible, and, in many instances, an emotionally-charged word. Consider the following phrases: “We were touched by their generosity.” “I really hope we can stay in touch.” “His presentation added the perfect touch to the evening.” Ever wonder why the word, “touch,” represents such emotionally-rich thoughts? Recently, National Public Radio shared a…
Conventional wisdom is an interesting concept – many times, we have convention, but we are far from wisdom. Here are some examples: Conventional wisdom says that smaller K-12 class sizes enhance student outcomes and test scores. Everyone knows this to be true, right? So, we have spent billions of dollars in an effort to keep…
Ideas are fun to generate and easy to deliver. Everyone has ideas. And most are willing to share their ideas on how things “should be done.” Ideas are everywhere – not scarce at all. On the other hand, executing is boring and hard work. Execution is about getting results – meaningful results. Good execution takes…
Donors invest because the work of our institutions makes both logical and emotional sense to them. Logically, donors have to recognize and agree that giving to our institution is a wise and productive investment. Their minds need to agree, “Yes, this makes sense!” Emotionally, donors need to feel that our institution’s work makes a qualitative…
Annual Funds are successful prior to the start of the fiscal year. Campaign goals are achieved before they are announced. Tomorrow’s planned gifts were solidified years ago. Our successes today depend on how mature our development program was yesterday. The more mature our programs, the more optimistic we can be regarding success today and…
We use the word all the time: “That’s peculiar!” “He’s just peculiar.” And while our use of the word may not be snidely, on most occasions we use it to mean something less than positive. In fact, the first definition for the word given by dictionary.com is strange, queer, odd. Many of your major donors…