Richard Perry

I will never forget the discussion I had when I was managing a sales team for a commercial company. I had been meeting with various sales people going over their performance, and now it was time to meet with Brandon...

As a major gift officer, you may be asked to manage the donor portfolio of your manager, CEO or executive director. In order to be effective, you have to have the ability to “manage up.” Managing up means that you are working with your CEO...

A major gift job is personal and intimate, and a major gift officer is often in situations, which can get really uncomfortable if the donor wants to take it there. I’m talking about racial and bigoted comments, sexual innuendo and inappropriate behavior, aggressive statements on political or religious views and any number of other situations that a MGO often finds themselves in...

Many major gift officers across the country, and MGOs we serve in Canada and Europe, are still treating all donors the same vs. realizing that there is a hierarchy of value that must be managed...

The major gift officer could not believe that his high-capacity donor would actually say it, but he had. They were just finishing up a round of golf and the donor turned to the MGO and said: “Bill, I would really like to do something significant at year-end. Why don’t you think about what that could be.”...

You have likely been in the situation where a current or new major gift donor reaches the $500+ cume level of giving. Either the major gift officer drops everything to handle him or her, or the donor is handed off to someone who should not be dealing with donors or the donor...

It’s a funny thing about obstacles in life. When they come up, our first impulse is to give up or to question the destination or even the path or strategy. That’s why I found this Zig Ziglar quote interesting and applicable to all of us dealing with major gift obstacles...

It was a pretty sad conversation. I had just hung up from a phone call with a really good major gift officer. And I had to admit I did not know what else I could have done. Here’s what happened...

OK, let’s be honest. It’s just you and me talking. No one else can hear our conversation. This is about planning for donors on your nonprofit caseload. Tell me the truth. Are you really planning what you will be doing with each donor on your caseload this next week, this next month, over the next few months?...

Jeff and I have been in many meetings where managers are haggling over how much to pay a major gift officer. Sometimes, there is an enlightened manager at the table who realizes that this one major gift officer could generate a substantial amount of revenue and, therefore, he or she says: “We’d better pay them well...

People often ask me, “Richard, what three main things do I need to make my major gift program successful?” I’m sure many people want to know because they feel real frustration about how their major gift program is currently performing. My answer: the major gift value triad...

It was budget time, and the manager was asked by finance to provide a forecast for major gifts for the coming year. The manager and the chief financial officer discussed how they should arrive at the right number and the CFO said: “Look, just take what major gift officers did last year and add 10 percent. It’s what we do every year.” And that, in a nutshell, is what major gift success looked like for that CFO...

Our donors are such a wonderful gift to us. And they, collectively, are doing so much good work in our world. Let’s agree to take a look at ourselves, as major gifts officers, to make sure we are doing everything we can to honor them and lift them up...

Over the years I have trained myself to focus on the need. Why? Because the right fix on the need drives everything you do in major gifts fundraising...

It happened several years ago. And I haven’t forgotten it. And when I heard about it I thought, really? Can anyone be so stupid? Now, I know stupid is a strong word and usually I don’t use it. But really, this was one of the worst twists of logic I have ever seen...