Essential Leadership Skills for Your Major Gifts Team

While it is true that every donor is important for every nonprofit organization, major donors require a bit more personal care than the average donor. It's just common sense. If a donor is going to make a major investment in your cause, he or she expects a closer relationship to the organization.

That makes having an effective, qualified and engaged major gifts team vital. At the 2012 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference last month, three fundraising professionals shared essential leadership skills every major-gifts team should have. Here are those skills that Julie Carter, president of Carter Consulting Group; Suzanne Mink, director of principal gifts, Mid-Atlantic at The Nature Conservancy; and Pam Traxel, vice president of alliance development and philanthropy development at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network provided during their session, "Building a High Performance Team to Support Major Donors."